The Emmy Awards, Concert from Vatican City, What’s Up with ‘Doc,’ ‘Walking Dead’ in Spain

Special

SUNDAY: Nate Bargatze hosts the Emmy Awards from L.A.’s Peacock Theater, where CBS could score a rare win for a broadcast network with Kathy Bates a front-runner in the lead drama actress category for Matlock. It could be a historic night for Apple TV+, which boasts the most nominated drama (Severance) and comedy (The Studio), while Netflix is poised to repeat in the limited-series category with Adolescence. An underdog to root for: HBO Max’s The Pitt, whose star Noah Wyle (coming full circle from his breakthrough role in ER) is favored in the lead drama actor category. Check out my analysis of the top categories in drama, comedy, and limited series, along with other Emmys coverage, here. (An edited version of last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys airs Saturday at 8/7c on FXX, featuring Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s timely presentation of the Governors Award to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is shutting down after Congress cruelly rescinded federal funding.)

Special

12/11c

SATURDAY: From St. Peter’s Square in Italy’s Vatican City, the first live concert ever to use this spectacular setting marks the end of the third World Meeting on Human Fraternity. At a time when a concert for peace sounds like an especially good idea, the musical event features Andrea Bocelli with a starry lineup including John Legend, Jennifer Hudson, Pharrell Williams with the Voices of Fire Gospel Choir, Teddy Swims, Jelly Roll, Karol G, and others, accompanied by an international choir. The special features an aerial drone and light show with images inspired by the Sistine Chapel.

Season Premiere

9/8c

SUNDAY: The emotionally charged medical drama doesn’t officially return in its regular Tuesday time period until Sept. 23, but fans can get an early look with a special preview of the Season 2 premiere. The episode puts recovering amnesiac Dr. Amy Larsen (Molly Parker) in the middle of a heated crisis when an out-of-control father puts the staff in danger while demanding his daughter get the heart transplant she was promised. This patient’s history is part of the past that Amy can’t remember, after a car accident wiped out the last eight years of her memories. She’s also involved in one of TV’s more complicated triangles, involving Michael (Omar Metwally), the ex-husband and chief medical officer she doesn’t remember divorcing—and whose new wife is going into labor on this day from hell — and chief resident Jake (Jon Ecker), the hot doc she can’t remember falling in love with.

9/8c

SUNDAY: There’s little time for a siesta when Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride) acclimate themselves to their new surroundings in Spain in the spinoff’s third season. They’re given shelter, though not the warmest of welcomes, in a thriving village that doesn’t typically welcome outsiders. The town is too busy to bother much with the newcomers, because they’re preparing for a festival that includes a lottery (shades of Shirley Jackson) that claims one unlucky young lady each year.

9/8c

SUNDAY: “What have you done to us?” Maeve (Emilia Jones) asks her uncle Robbie (Tom Pelphrey) once she realizes who little 6-year-old Sam (Ben Lewis Doherty) really is. And what are they going to do with this sole survivor of Robbie’s botched and violent raid on a biker gang’s drug trap house? While we learn more about Robbie’s crusade against the Dark Hearts gang, the second episode of Brad Ingelby’s bleak crime drama also delivers insight into FBI agent Tom’s (Mark Ruffalo) broken family, nervously anticipating a sentencing hearing a week away for his adopted son.

INSIDE WEEKEND TV:

• Girlfriends (Saturday, 12 pm/11c, CLEO TV): A weekend-long marathon celebrates the 25th anniversary of the 2000-2008 sitcom starring Tracee Ellis Ross, Golden Brooks, Persia White, and Jill Marie Jones as besties.
• Notre Dame Football (Saturday, 7:30 pm/ET, NBC, streaming on Peacock): The network begins its 35th year of exclusive coverage of Notre Dame regular-season home football games as the No. 8 Fighting Irish take on the No. 16 Texas A&M Aggies.
• A Husband to Die For: The Lisa Aguilar Story (Saturday, 8/7c, Lifetime): Keana Lyn Bastidas stars in a fact-based movie as a newlywed and expecting mother who realizes her husband (Jon McLaren) may be the person who viciously attacked her and left her and her unborn child for dead. Marilu Henner co-stars as Lisa’s supportive grandmother.
• Canelo vs. Crawford (Saturday, 9 pm/ET, streaming on Netflix): Super Middleweight champ Saul “Canelo” Álvaraz takes on undefeated Terence Crawford in a highly anticipated Super Middleweight championship bout from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
• Death Row Confidential: Secrets of a Serial Killer (Saturday, 9/8c, Oxygen): A docuseries continuing Sept. 20 explores the crimes of Joseph Anaso, who was convicted of murdering four women more than a decade ago but is suspected of a much higher body count. His San Quentin cellmate, William A. Noguera, kept his ears open and worked with retired FBI investigator Ken Mains to find new victims and bring closure to families.
• CBS News Sunday Morning (Sunday, 9 am/8c, CBS, check local listings): Lee Cowan profiles Jason Bateman, who returns to Netflix next week with the limited series Black Rabbit, and Tracy Smith interviews Marlon Wayans.
• The Great North (Sunday, 9/8c, Fox): The animated comedy wraps its fifth season with back-to-back episodes, including a sleepover at the Tobins and Beef (Nick Offerman) going to great measures to reintroduce roadkill moose meat to the town. Yum?
• The Whole Story With Anderson Cooper (Sunday, 9/8c, CNN): Ed Lavandera delivers the timely report “Bad Sports: When Fans Turn Violent,” about the increase of mayhem at major sporting events worldwide.
• Ride With Norman Reedus (Sunday, 11/10c, AMC): The Walking Dead star is back on his chopper for a seventh season of road trips, with Sons of Anarchy and The Walking Dead: Dead City alum Kim Coates his first companion as they ride through Georgia.