Week’s top-10 for July 22: Olympics begin; so do dramas

1) Olympics begin, Saturday and Sunday. In a bold change, every event will be shown live (via NBC, USA, Peacock, etc.), despite a difference of six hours ET, nine PT. NBC also repackages the day, from 8-11 p.m. Track and field wait until Aug. 1, but others start now, including gymnastics, basketball and medals in swimming (shown here) and diving.

2) Olympics opening, 1-6:30 p.m. ET Friday NBC, rerunning from 7:30 to 11:30. Instead of marching into an arena, athletes will float down the Seine River. There are 10,500 of them for 206 countries, from the U.S. (592) to Belize, Liechtenstein, Nauru and Somalia (one each). Mike Tirico anchors, as he’ll do each evening.

3) “Hotel Portofino” season-opener, 8 p.m. Sunday, PBS. Here are gifted actors in gorgeous settings and a pivotal time (1929 Italy). But “Portofino,” already way tpp soap-opera-style, now adds overwrought melodrama. Last season, Lucien’s bride killed herself and his friend vanished; now Lucien is gone and woe grows.

4) “61st Street” season-opener, 9 p.m. today, CW. The first season (on AMC) saw a lawyer (Courtney B. Vance) defend a Black teen. It was hard, harsh and involving. The second season is even tougher … and AMC shelved it. Now, more than two years after the first ended, the second is on CW; it backs fierce punch, literally and emotionally.

5) Reality overload, Tuesday. NBC’s best night gets a final shot before the Olympic break; “America’s Got Talent\” wraps its audtions at 8; “Password” (with Lindsay Vonn) is at 10. They face games on Fox (“Beat Shazam,” “The Quiz With Balls”) and ABC, where “Celebrity Family Feud” includes Robin Thicke and Anthony Anderson.

6) “Time Bandits” opener, Wednesday, Apple TV+.In 1981, Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam made a daft movie about time-trekking outlaws. Now it’s a 10-parter from “What We Do in the Shadows” producers, with Lisa Kudrow as the leader. Also streaming (Thursday on Netflix): “The Decameron,” a dark comedy set in the 14th century,

7) “Sullivan’s Crossing” return, 8 p.m. Wednesday, CW. The series opener (rerunning here) feels exaggerated, with police bursting into a dinner to arrest its honoree, What follows, however, is an involving tale of a Boston doctor, retreating to her Canadian home. It reruns on Wednesdays, before the second season starts Oct. 2

8) “Wayne Brady: The Family Remix” debut, 10 p.m. Wednesday, Freeform. Mandie Taketa’s real life might seem like a soap/sitcom plot. She’s a former dancer who married singer-actor Wayne Brady. They divorced, but stayed in business together. This reality show includes them, their daughter (21) and Mandie’s new guy and their son, 3,.

9) “Ghosts,” 8:30 p.m. Thursday, CBS. Freddie, the new assistant, is iway too eager Suspecting (correctly) that the place is haunted, he buys ghostbusting gear. Also, he sells the car that contains Sasappis’ girlfriend. That’s on a comedy-rerun night, with “Young Sheldon” (8 p.m., CBS) and “The Conners” (8 and 8:30, CW).

10) “Snowpiercer,” 9 p.m. Sunday, AMC. Last week, after a change of networks, the fourth and final season finally began That focused on the struggling New Eden; now we’re back in the train, circling a frozen Earth. There are compelling action scenes (with Clark Gregg as a new nemesis) and then a sharp change of direction.