1) Olympics final week. This is when track-and-field (shown here in a previous year) — the original core of any Olympics – starts piling up medals. There are finals live at 1:30 p.m. ET today, 1:35 Tuesday, 1 Wednesday, 11:35 Thursday, 1:30 Friday and 10 Saturday, Others include swimming, diving and more, with a recap each day, 8-11 p.m.
2) “13 Days in Ferguson,” 10 p.m. Friday, CBS. It was 10 years ago Friday that an unarmed Black teen was killed in Ferguson, Mo., spurring national protests For Cedric the Entertainer, it was personal. He grew up near Ferguson and his longtime friend, a state policeman, tried to defuse the crisis. Now the friends revisit the site.
3) “Signora Volpe,” 6-8:07 p.m. today, BBC America; and acorn.tv. In three movie-length mysteries per season, this has smart stories in great Italian settings. Now it’s even better: Working free-lance, Sylvia (Emilia Fox), an ex-spy, meets a key figure from her past. That propels this week’s story and next week’s potent finale.
4) “The Bachelorette,” 8-10 p.m. today, ABC. Jenn Tran has already ousted 17 guys, She has 11 left, including two medical students, a former Army Ranger and a pet-portrait guy. Tonight in New Zealand there are large-scale dates via helicopter and horseback, plus a more down-to-earth group date at a sheep farm.
5) “Celebrity Family Feud,” 8 p.m. Tuesday, ABC. Here are famous “Idol” runners-up. Clay Aiken lost to Ruben Studdard, Katharine McPhee to Taylor Hicks. Both went on to Broadway and more. Aiken has sold five million albums; McPhee starred in two TV series Now they compete; so do Fat Joe and “Fluffy” Iglesias.
6) “Don’t Forget the Lyrics” season-finale, 8-10 p.m. Thursday, Fox. Niecy Nash hosts two hours of musical misadventures. One has a former Junior Olympics champion, the other has a singing doctor. That wraps a week of music games on Fox, with “Name That Tune” (8 p.m. Monday) and “Beat Shazam” (8 Tuesday, 9 Wednesday).
7) “”Descendants: The Rise of the Red,” 8 p.m. Friday, Disney Channel, repeating at 9:45. This starts wonderfully, with a musical chase scene for teen Red (Kylie Cantrall) and a strong song by her evil mom (Rita Ora). After that, alas, this is merely OK, with a so-so, time-travel plot, lots of up-tempo songs and a shrug of an ending.
8) Streep-athon, Saturday, Turner Classic Movies. Two of Meryl Streep’s Oscar-winning roles, “Kramer vs. Kramer” and “Sophie’s Choice,” are at 6 and 8 p.m. ET. She also won for “Iron Lady” and was nominated for 18 more., including “Florence Foster Jenkins” (2 p.m.), “Doubt” (4), and “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” (10:45).
9) Olympic finale. Basketball waits to the end: Men are Saturday – bronze at 5 a.m. ET on USA. rerunning at 1 p.m.; gold at 3:30 p.m. on NBC. Women are Sunday – bronze, 5:30 a.m., USA, gold, 9:30 a.m., NBC. There’s more Sunday – wrestling, marathon, etc. — plus NBC’s recap at 11 and closing ceremony at noon, rerunning 7-11 p.m..
10) ALSO: Two shows grab the slot at 9-p.m. Sunday. HBO has the third season of “Industry,” a British drama about college grads, trying to keep jobs at an investment bank. PBS starts a rerun of “Magpie Murders,” a brilliant tale that tackles two murders – one in an unfinished novel, the other the killing of the book’s author.
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