Grim Turns on ‘Happy Valley,’ Yoo-Hoo to ‘Yahoo’ Game Show, Dry Times on ‘Mars,’ ‘Buffalo Soldiers’ on PBS

Now past the halfway point of the acclaimed crime drama’s final season, with Sergeant Catherine Cawood (the marvelous Sarah Lancashire) just a week away from retirement, she continues to spread warnings about her nemesis, serial killer Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton), whom she describes as “a black hole. He’s a nasty negative nothing who sucks the life and anything good out of anything he touches.” But will that keep her grandson Ryan (Rhys Connah), also Tommy’s son, from defying orders to travel to Leeds to observe his sentencing hearing?

Series Premiere

8/7c

Emerging from the shadow of The Flash, Tom Cavanagh (who those with long TV memories will always fondly remember as Ed) hosts a Family Feud-style game show for the Internet age. Two teams of three face off with the goal of predicting popular Yahoo searches by filling in the blank. “Think ‘Hey Yahoo!: Which state has the most ….”

8/7c

Some celebrities dry out on purpose, but in the second episode of the high-profile celebreality competition, the players in their simulated Mars base are presented a life-or-death dilemma: a depleted water supply. How will they shower or brush their teeth—or, even more critical, hydrate? That’s the problem Mission Control (William Shatner) sets for them to conquer.

Documentary Premiere

10/9c

A provocative historical documentary uses archival photos, animation and reenactments to portray the complex and at times contradictory history of the Buffalo Soldiers, an all-Black military unit formed in 1866 of newly freed men on the path to full citizenship. Beyond the social barriers and segregation that kept them from achieving true equality while serving in conflicts including the Indian Wars, the Spanish-America War, the Philippine-American War and World Wars I and II, these soldiers leave a complicated legacy from their role in achieving Westward expansion, aiding in strike-breaking and appropriating tribal lands.

INSIDE MONDAY TV:

• The Rising (8/7c, The CW): The family attends a vigil for recently murdered Neve (Clare Rugaard), who as a ghost resolves to solve her own case from the afterlife. If the latest suspect, her ex-boyfriend Joseph, looks familiar, he’s played by Solly McLeod, recently Tom Jones on PBS’s Masterpiece.
• America’s National Parks (9/8c and 10/9c, National Geographic): Next stops for the scenic nature series: California’s Channel Islands and Alaska’s Lake Clark National Park, which protects the headwaters of the planet’s largest sockeye salmon run.
• Celebrity IOU (9/8c, HGTV): Former Tonight Show host Jay Leno enlists Jonathan and Drew Scott to help make over the home of a dear friend he considers like a son. Challenges include revamping a bathroom and creating a nursery for a newborn on the way.