‘Saturday Night Live’ Returns, Tony Bennett on ’60 Minutes,’ No Vacation for ‘Grantchester,’ Beyond ‘Walking Dead’

Season Premiere

11:30/10:30c

SATURDAY: There’s a first time for everyone, and as the Emmy-winning late-night comedy staple returns for its 47th season with four consecutive live show, all of October’s guest hosts are first-timers. The season opens with Owen Wilson (Loki), and Kacey Musgraves making her second appearance as musical guest. On the docket for the rest of the month: Kim Kardashian West (Oct. 9), Rami Malek (Oct.16) and returning to the stage that made him famous, Ted Lasso’s Jason Sudeikis (Oct. 23).

7:30/6:30c

SUNDAY: A particularly strong lineup for the venerable newsmagazine includes Scott Pelley’s interview with the whistleblower and former Facebook employee who has the documents to show how the social-media platform knowingly amplifies misinformation and polarizing hate speech with its algorithms. Expect to be moved by Anderson Cooper’s report on 95-year-old musical legend Tony Bennett, whose musical memory is somehow unaffected by Alzheimer’s as he prepares for his farewell concerts with Lady Gaga. A timely third segment features Lesley Stahl reporting on the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which military service members say is too mired in red tape.

Season Premiere

9/8c

SUNDAY:  The sixth season of Masterpiece’s engaging mystery series about a crime-solving vicar in the 1950s opens with Rev. Will Davenport (Tom Brittney) joining his Detective Inspector pal Geordie Keating (Robson Green) and family on a much-deserved getaway to a cheery holiday camp. (Feels like the Catskills in the British countryside.) Naturally, murder is not on vacation, and before long, they’re investigating a mysterious death tied to a blackmail scheme. Also taking advantage of the summer break: timid curate Leonard Finch (Al Weaver), whose attempt to befriend a similarly lonely and closeted soul could backfire.

10/9c

SUNDAY: As the Walking Dead mothership hurtles towards its fall finale (airing Oct. 10), the youth-oriented spinoff returns for a second and final season. Sisters Hope (Alexa Mansour) and Iris (Aliyah Royale) have been separated by the mysterious Civil Republic Military—which holds the key to Rick Grimes’ disappearance (but that’s a different story)—and as genius Hope endures testing by the CRM, Iris and Felix (Younger’s Nico Tortorella) cross paths with a new group.

Streaming Horror:

• As part of the discovery+ “Ghostober” programming block, The Haunted Museum (Saturday) is a nine-part series of scary short films from Eli Roth and Ghost Adventures host Zak Bagans, telling spooky stories inspired by creepy artifacts within Bagans’ Las Vegas museum. First up: “Dollhouse of the Damned.” Likewise, in the penultimate Season 2 episode of the terrific Paramount+ series Evil (Sunday), the investigative team encounters eerie and possibly possessed dolls in a case that hits very close to home.

Inside Weekend TV:

• Call the Midwife (Sunday, 10/9c, PBS, check local listings at pbs.org): The 10th season of the evocative drama takes the nuns and nurses of Nonnatus House into 1966, with Trixie (Helen George) and Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter) contriving a plan to get the convent out of its financial bind.
• Finales: On TNT’s Animal Kingdom (Sunday, 9/8c), the Cody clan rallies to pull off the biggest job of their lives while settling stores. On Showtime’s Billions (Sunday, 9/8c), the future of Axe Capital could hinge on how the dust settles as Bobby Axe (Damian Lewis), Chuck (Paul Giamatti) and Prince (Corey Stoll) continue to try to outsmart each other. Both series have been renewed for sixth seasons (it will be Animal Kingdom’s last).
• Sunday Night Football (Sunday, 8:20 pm/ET, NBC): Expect a huge tune-in as Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady returns to Gillette Stadium to take on the New England Patriots, with whom he won six Super Bowls.
• NFL Icons (Saturday, 10/9c, Epix): A new docuseries uses NFL Films archives to profile some of the greatest players ever to grace the gridiron. First up: Green Bay legend Brett Favre.
• iHeartRadio Music Festival 2021 (Saturday and Sunday, 8/7c, The CW): Filmed over two nights in Las Vegas, the annual concert special fills two nights of prime time. Ryan Seacrest hosts, with talent including Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Coldplay, Weezer, Nelly, Florida Georgia Line, Cheap Trick and many more.
• True Crime Watch: In an exclusive, CBS’ 48 Hours (Saturday, 10/9c) features Peter Van Sant’s interview with Jasmine Hartin, a vacationing socialite accused of fatally shooting police superintendent Henry Jemmott in Belize, for which she has been charged with manslaughter by negligence. But was it really an accident? On a Saturday edition of Dateline NBC (9 pm/ET, NBC), Keith Morrison revisits the 2007 murder of Chicago pharmaceutical rep Nailah Franklin.
• Frankie Drake Mysteries (Saturday, 7/6c, Ovation TV): The fourth and final season of the light Canadian mystery begins with 1920s Toronto sleuth Frankie (Lauren Lee Smith) and her pals on a scavenger hunt that takes a deadly turn.
• The Good Father: The Martin MacNeill Story (Saturday, 8/7c, Lifetime): Tom Everett Scott’s natural charm makes this fact-based crime melodrama even creepier. He’s Martin MacNeill, a Utah doctor whose façade crumbles after his wife (Charisma Carpenter) drowns in the bathtub while recovering from plastic surgery he suggested. His once-adoring daughter (Anwen O’Driscoll) gets suspicious when he moves in his “nanny”/mistress (Nicola Correia-Damude).