Remembering the 2010s, ‘Midwife,’ ‘Company’ and More Finales, MTV Movie & TV Awards, the Coronation and Kentucky Derby

Series Premiere

9/8c

SUNDAY: It’s a bit early to consider the previous decade a hotbed for nostalgia, but CNN’s “Decades” series takes us back to a time before COVID-19 and a simpler era when Netflix was still a place to get videos by mail. (That would change with the arrival of shows like House of Cards in 2013.) The two-hour opener covers “Peak TV,” an era seen as a new golden age of television, when streaming changed the way many watched their shows, turning marginal cult faves like Breaking Bad and Schitt’s Creek into award-winning hits. Future installments will cover flashpoints in marriage equality, the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter social movements and the presidencies of Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

Season Finale

8/7c

SUNDAY: The 12th season of the popular period drama ends by celebrating the wedding of nurse Trixie Franklin (Helen George) to widowed father Sir Matthew Aylward (Olly Rix), shifting focus from East London to the more fashionable Chelsea neighborhood for the big event. How will her family from downscale Poplar, including brother Geoffrey (Christopher Harper), fit in? And will elderly Sister Monica Joan (the great Judy Parfitt) be fit to do her reading? A car crash further complicates the happy day. Also ending its first season on PBS: Marie Antoinette (10/9c), where war with England looms when Ben Franklin pays a visit, but Queen Marie (Emilia Schüle) retreats from politics and King Louis (Louis Cunningham) at Petit Trianon—where she finds distraction with Count Axel von Fersen (Martijn Lakemeier).

8/7c

SUNDAY: In solidarity with the writers’ strike, Drew Barrymore has pulled out of hosting this yearly pop-culture celebration from L.A.’s Barker Hanger. But the show apparently will still go on, without a host, as The White Lotus star Jennifer Coolidge is expected to accept the “Comedic Genius” award. Lotus is among the top nominees, alongside a diverse slate including The Last of Us, Stranger Things, Top Gun: Maverick and RuPaul’s Drag Race.

9/8c

SUNDAY: The blistering final season of the Emmy-winning drama continues on Election Eve, with Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) hosting—and not since Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? has there been such a dysfunctional and combative couple welcoming people into their unhappy home. Among the attendees: media disruptor Lukas Mattson (Alexander Skarsgård), to the chagrin of brother CEOs Kendall (Jeremy Strong) and Roman (Kieran Culkin), who are still trying to find ways to sour the deal and stop Mattson from acquiring the family business. Since patriarch Logan Roy’s death, every episode has had extraordinarily high stakes, and this evening of harrowing horse trading is no exception.

9/8c

SUNDAY: Someone call the midwife! Yes, those were labor pains teenage Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) was beginning to experience in the previous episode’s cliffhanger—making us wait two weeks to get to the moment we’ve been awaiting, and fearing, all season: Shauna’s childbirth under the most harrowing circumstances imaginable. In the present day, adult Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) and daughter Callie (Sarah Desjardins) are brought in for questioning, and a major epiphany, after the local cops discover their attempted cover-up ruse.

KING CHARLES’ CORONATION & KENTUCKY DERBY: 

• By the time you read this, Saturday’s Coronation of King Charles III will likely be well underway or over. All major networks are covering the ceremony, many starting live at 5 am/ET, and if you’d prefer to watch from the perspective of British TV, BBC America and BritBox (with ITN coverage) are where to go.
• NBC and Peacock begin coverage of the 149^th Kentucky Derby at noon/ET with a preview, then again at 2:30 pm/ET through 7:30/ET, setting the stage for the Triple Crown of horse racing.

SEASON FINALES:

• Wrapping for the season is ABC’s romantic spy caper The Company You Keep (Sunday, 10/9c), where CIA agent Emma (Catherine Haena Kim) and her conman love interest Charlie (Milo Ventimiglia) team with former nemesis Daphne (Felisha Terrell) to take down the criminal Maguire clan.
• Lucky Hank (Sunday, 9/8c, AMC): Department head Hank (Bob Odenkirk) makes more tough calls with his colleagues’ jobs in the balance, while wife Lily (Mireille Enos) settles into her new life in New York.
• Rabbit Hole (Sunday, streaming on Paramount+): John Weir (Kiefer Sutherland) makes a desperate final attempt to stop Crowley (Peter Weller) from destroying democracy.

INSIDE WEEKEND TV:

• Into the Wild Frontier (Saturday, 6/5c, INSP): A third season of the Western docudrama anthology about pioneering men and women opens with the story of “Anne Bailey: Horseback Heroine.”
• 60 Minutes (Sunday, 7/6c, CBS): Reports include Anderson Cooper’s profile of 75-year-old war photographer James Nachtwey, Scott Pelley’s investigation into illegal child-labor practices in the slaughterhouse industry and Bill Whitaker’s visit to California’s “Lithium Valley.”
• Vice (Sunday, 8/7c, Showtime): The hard-hitting documentary series opens its fourth season with reports on the aftershocks of the Syrian earthquake and advances in artificial intelligence.
• The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper (Sunday, 8/7c, CNN): In a report titled “Shaken: Baby Powder on Trial,” chief investigative reporter/anchor Pamela Brown explores claims from those who believe Johnson & Johnson’s now-discontinued talc baby powder caused their cancer.
• Accomplice to Murder with Vinnie Politan (Sunday, Court TV, 8 pm/ET): In a 10-part docuseries, the channel’s lead anchor finds a new angle on court cases by interviewing those who may have abetted the main culprit or mastermind.
• The Real Housewives of Atlanta (Sunday, 8/7c, Bravo): Round 15 of the reality soap catches up with singer Drew Sidora’s sudden divorce, pot-stirrer Kenya Moore’s hair-care line and longtime cast member Kandi Burress’s personal and professional ambitions. Followed by the premiere of Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard (9/8c), with the focus on 12 friends as they frolic in the playground for Black professionals and entrepreneurs.
• The Equalizer (Sunday, 8/7c, CBS): She’ll always have Paris. That’s the destination Fisk (Donal Logue) sends Robyn (Queen Latifah) to track down a former MI6 agent (Andrew Stewart-Jones) with whom she once had a relationship and who might be able to help her find an important document he was hiding.
• The Blacklist (Sunday, 10/9c, NBC): While Senator Panabaker (Deirdre Lovejoy) evaluates the Task Force’s relationship with Red (James Spader) in Washington, D.C., agents Dembe (Hisham Tawfiq) and Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff) spring into action when they believe Red has been taken hostage during a Philadelphia deli robbery.