‘Grantchester,’ SharkFest, ‘Who Do You Think You Are?,’ More ‘Flowers’

Season Premiere

9/8c

SUNDAY: Cue the “Odd Couple” vibes as the long-running Masterpiece series begins its seventh season in the summer of 1959 with crime-solving vicar Will Davenport (Tom Brittney) opening the vicarage doors to a new roommate: his best pal, Inspector Geordie Keating (Robson Green), who spends these hot months trying to win back estranged wife Cathy (Kacey Ainsworth) in between cases. Also starting anew: former curate Leonard Finch (Al Weaver), who has opened a café for poets—which later becomes a crime scene, as you’d expect. While Reverend Will’s love life heats up, so do the local murders, starting with a corpse found on a local estate.

8/7c

SUNDAY: As surely as the days grow longer in midsummer, here comes the onslaught of shark documentaries to scare us out of the water. National Geographic once again gets to the beach first—Discovery’s more iconic Shark Week arrives July 24—with specials also available for streaming on Disney+, with vintage episodes dropping on Hulu for the truly insatiable. The 10th-anniversary season of SharkFest opens with Camo Sharks, which depicts scientific investigations into whether and how sharks change color at will to make it easier to blend in and catch prey. Followed by Backyard Bull Sharks (11/10c), which suggests these aggressive predators are expanding their range in waters that have warmed up because of climate change.

Season Premiere

7/6c

SUNDAY: Returning to its original network after nearly 10 years, the Emmy-winning documentary series starts its new season with a personal quest by Tony and Emmy winning actor-musician Billy Porter (Pose). He enlists a family historian and genealogist to learn the tragic, troubling truth behind his great-grandfather’s 1923 murder. A local African-American newspaper provides the facts behind this death from a policeman’s bullet that sparked a community uproar.

Series Premiere

8/7c

SATURDAY: How did the twisted Gothic world of V.C. Andrews’ Flowers saga come into being? A four-part prequel, airing on consecutive Saturdays, fills in the backstory of Cathy and Chris Dollanganger’s cruel grandmother Olivia (Jemima Rooper). She’s introduced as the headstrong young bride of rich, immoral Malcolm Foxworth (Max Irons), whose Foxworth Hall estate hides many dark secrets. Co-stars include Harry Hamlin as Olivia’s father and Kelsey Grammer as the patrician patriarch of Malcolm’s family.

Season Premiere

9/8c

SUNDAY: Fun and Games: Once again, ABC is all in on game shows this summer. The Sunday lineup kicks in with the Season 8 premiere of Celebrity Family Feud (8/7c), featuring casts of two great comedies and probable Emmy contenders: Abbott Elementary (led by series creator Quinta Brunson) vs. Hacks (led by Emmy winner Jean Smart). Teams led by actors Kal Penn and Erika Christensen square off in the second game. Abbott’s terrific Janelle James skips Feud to host the ridiculous new game show The Final Straw (9/8c), in which teams play an oversized game of Jenga, pulling large objects—think kitchen appliances, basketballs, laundry hampers—off a wobbly themed stack until it all comes tumbling down. The night ends with a game-show classic, The $100,000 Pyramid (10/9c), with Michael Strahan returning to host the eighth season. Contestants in the opener include Olympian Lindsey Vonn vs. comedian Russell Peters, and a mini-Seinfeld reunion when Jason Alexander faces Wayne Knight. Newman!

SUNDAY: Screams of terror and laughter freely commingle in this inspired and thrillingly bizarre mashup of supernatural and spiritual intrigue. (Best news of the week: Evil has been renewed for a fourth year.) The season has been building to this: a showdown in ecclesiastical court between feisty Sister Andrea (the wonderful Andrea Martin) and her accuser, the vile Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson). While Father David (Mike Colter) prepares for her defense, he and the rest of the investigative team are called in to confirm a possible miracle involving an angel who may have saved victims from a collapsing building. Ensuing visions lead David, an African-American priest, to question the cultural indoctrination that has even him seeing most saints and angels as white.

Inside Weekend TV:

• Wimbledon Finals (Saturday and Sunday, 9 am/ET, ESPN): The ladies’ singles final airs live on Saturday, and the gentlemen’s finalists play for Grand Slam honors on Sunday.
• My Grown-Up Christmas List (Saturday, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel): As inevitable as shark specials is the return of the “Christmas in July” movie franchise, starting with the romance of a journalist and an Army captain (real-life couple Kayla Wallace and Kevin McGarry of When Calls the Heart) over five holidays.
• Say Yes to the Dress (Saturday, 8/7c, TLC): The show that makes any bride look good in the gown of their dreams celebrates its 15th year and 20th season.
• Steal This House (Saturday, 9/8c, HGTV): Detroit-based Cristy Lee helps clients make the most of their budgets, buying low-priced properties and turning them into dream homes.
• Collector’s Call (Sunday, 6:30/5:30c, MeTV): The nostalgia series, just renewed for a fourth season, continues with a peek inside the collection of Ghostbusters collectible fan Robert O’Connor, who’s even made his own ghost traps and proton packs.
• Riverdale (Sunday, 8/7c, The CW): Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) calls on a fellow teen witch—Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka from Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina)—for help to take on Percival (Chris O’Shea).
• Johnson (Sunday, 8/7c, Bounce): The network’s most-watched half-hour series, from producers Cedric the Entertainer and D.L. Hughley, is back for a second season, following four best friends from Atlanta—all named Johnson—including Jarvis (Derrex Brady), who’s suing the police department for brutality after being pulled over in the Season 1 finale.
• Biography: WWE Legends (Sunday, 8/7c, A&E): The Biography franchise turns again to the world of pro-wrestling icons, starting with Undertaker. Followed by the new series WWE Rivals (10/9c), hosted by Freddie Prinze Jr., exploring classic rivalries (starting with Bret “The Hitman” Hart vs. Shawn Michaels), and the inevitable WWE Smack Talk after-show recap (11/10c).
• Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World (Sunday, 9/8c, CNN): The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal narrates the news channel’s first wildlife docuseries, a six-part immersion into the wilds of Chile and Argentina. Followed by Season 7 of the provocative United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell (10/9c).
• Women Who Rock (Sunday, 9/8c, Epix): Women pioneers in music are celebrated in a four-part series, starting in the 1950s and 1960s, with emerging superstars in gospel, rock and R&B including Mavis Staples, Janis Joplin and Chaka Khan.
• The Anarchists (Sunday, 10/9c, HBO): A six-part docuseries explores the dark side of a would-be utopia when an annual gathering of libertarians, crypto-currency zealots and others seeking an escape from government and bureaucracy turns deadly.
• Bridge and Tunnel (Sunday, 10/9c, Epix): The period romcom moves into the summer of 1981 for its second season, with the Long Island grads now living it up in the big city of Manhattan.
• Supreme Team (Sunday, 10/9c, Showtime): A three-part docuseries tells the story of the notorious Queens-based organized-crime syndicate from the perspective of its leaders, Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff and Gerald “Prince” Miller.
• Skymed (Sunday, streaming on Paramount+): From Canada, nine episodes of an action procedural about a diverse crew of nurses and pilots performing high-risk rescues aboard air ambulances in Northern Canada.