‘Clipped’ Finale, Baby Sharks and Shark Bait on TCM, Sprinting with Athletes, ‘Hard Knocks’ Goes Offseason

Clipped

FX’s colorful sports docudrama concludes with judgment day for L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling (Ed O’Neill) and his estranged wife Shelly (Jacki Weaver) as the deadline looms for selling the team. She has landed a whale with a $2 billion offer, but still needs her combative husband to sign off on the deal—though maybe a mental competency test will get her off the hook. While the Sterlings head to court, several times, back on the basketball court, coach Doc Rivers (Laurence Fishburne) cheers on his players through the playoffs. Not an easy task, once Donald’s alarming interview on Anderson Cooper 360 sets the team back into a psychological tailspin.

Sharkfest

SharkFest continues with Baby Sharks in the City (8/7c), a special about the discovery by shark biologists of a nursery of baby Atlantic great whites off the coast of New York City. Scientists use a camera tag to record life in the Atlantic among the baby great whites. Followed by the premiere of Shark Attack 360 (10/9c), the first of eight new episodes exploring why sharks attack humans.

Mutiny on the Bounty

With SharkFest well underway and Discovery’s Shark Week returning on Sunday, Turner Classic Movies gets in the spirit with aquatic adventures on the high seas. (No Jaws in the mix, though.) The prime-time lineup starts with Alfred Hitchcock’s 1944 Lifeboat (8/7c), about stranded survivors of a U-boat attack (with a rare film appearance by Tallulah Bankhead). Followed by 1960’s disaster movie The Last Voyage (10/9c), about passengers trapped on a sinking ocean liner, and two 1930s classics: Captains Courageous (11:45/10:45c) and the Clark Gable–Charles Laughton led Mutiny on the Bounty (2 am/1c).

Sprint

The Flash has nothing on the speedy elite athletes profiled in a six-part docuseries from the producers of Formula 1: Drive to Survive and Full Swing. With eyes on the ultimate prize — an Olympic gold medal in the 100 meters — Sprint attempts to keep up with top contenders in track and field as they train, travel and compete throughout the 2023 World Championships. It takes mental toughness as well as relentless physical conditioning to run like Sha’Carri Richardson, Noah Lyles and Shericka Jackson, among others featured in the series.

Hard Knocks

The Hard Knocks franchise, which has won 18 Sports Emmy Awards over the years for its coverage of NFL teams during training camps and the regular season, expands with its first season following a team during the offseason. Over five weekly episodes (through July 30), Hard Knocks and NFL Films go inside the New York Giants organization as it prepares for its 100^th season, focusing on general manager Joe Schoen and his front-office staff as well as the players through the process of free agency and the NFL draft, followed by team minicamps.

INSIDE TUESDAY TV:

• Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution (9/8c, PBS): This is why we can’t have groovy things. Having relived the height of the disco era, the docuseries concludes by depicting the inevitable backlash, reaching its peak with a “Disco Sucks” demonstration at Chicago’s Comiskey Park Stadium. Disco as a music genre would fade, but dance music lives on as electronic house music.
• Password (10/9c, NBC): The password is … rapper. As in Wiz Khalifa, who faces off against Jimmy Fallon as they team with contestants in the classic word game.
• Star Wars: The Acolyte (streaming on Disney+): We now know the identity of the Big Bad Sith master: Qimir (Manny Jacinto). And with his follower, dark-sider Mae (Amandla Stenberg), disguised as her twin sister Osha, things are getting even more serious for the depleted ranks of the Jedi heroes.