1) “Nature” season-opener, 8 p.m., PBS. Eastern lowland gorillas (shown here) are huge (sometimes 500 pounds) and scarce (about 5,000 left). Now we follow a Congolese expert; he hopes to be face-to-face with a giant silverback, habituating him to humans, so tourism money can fund preservation. This spends too much time on the people, but is still impressive.
2) “What Would You Do?” 10:02 p.m., ABC. This is when the “Scamanda” docu-series was supposed to air. The show was set to start Oct. 9, then pushed to Oct. 16, then to sometime in 2025. Instead, ABC fills Mondays with football; this hidden-camera show moves to Wednesdays and others – two game shows and “Scamanda” – are on the shelf.
3) “Abbott Elementary,” 9:30 p.m., ABC. As ABC shuffles shows, this remains a lonely comedy island. Tonight, Janine has landed funding to have classroom pets; Melissa feels she’s already overworked, without a guinea pig to worry about. Also, a tech person arrives to help with computers.
4) “Joan,” 9 p.m., CW. Last week, this true-crime mini-series saw Joan reach highs (a clever jewelry scam, a marriage proposal) and lows: Foster parents want to adopt her daughter; also, the heist of a painting was botched. Now things get worse, with efforts to sell the painting.
5) MORE: At 8 p.m., the reality shows – CBS’ “Survivor,” Fox’s “Masked Singer,” ABC’s “Golden Bachelorette” – face two scripted ones. On NBC’s “Chicago Med,” Asher helps a pregnant woman who has an autistic son. On CW’s “Sullivan’s Crossing,” the storm leaves Maggie and Cal stranded in his cabin; also, her dad finally has a key piece of his memory.
— Mike Hughes, TV America