Return of the American Gladiators, Baez in Boston, Godzilla Awakens, Attenborough’s Gorilla Story

American Gladiators

Attention, all warriors! The arena is open again for business in a revival of the bruising competition franchise that first began in 1989, ran in syndication for much of the 1990s, and returned briefly (on NBC) in 2008. A new generation of 16 ultra-fit Gladiators, whose credits include pro wrestling, football, and (naturally) reality TV, takes on amateur contenders in a series of battles based on games old (Joust, Powerball, Hang Tough, The Wall) and new (The Ring, Collision). The last man and woman left standing win $100,000 and the title of American Gladiator Champion. The series plays out over three weeks: three episodes this and next Friday, with the four-episode finale on May 1. May the best Gladiator win!

Boston Blue

Danny Reagan’s (Mark Wahlberg) favorite former partner, Blue Bloods’ Maria Baez (Marisa Ramirez), travels north to pay another visit to Beantown, following a lead from a homicide in Brooklyn. She teams up again with Danny and his new partner, Lena Silver (Sonequa Martin-Green), to solve the case while protecting a victim. Fans who still miss the original series never object to this sort of Bloods transfusion.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

Patience pays off in this sporadic action series from the Godzilla-Kong “Monsterverse.” With the fearsome Titan X beast beached after making landfall in a remote area of Australia, Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) sets off a gamma ray signal to awaken from the deep the creature of all creatures: Godzilla itself. Shaw wants to see the monsters battle it out and end the Titan X threat, while his colleagues Keiko (Mari Yamamoto) and Cate (Shōgun‘s Anna Sawai) plead a different strategy: save the new Titan by returning it to its migratory route. But other forces are at work as well, all taking a back seat to the climactic clash of the Titans.

A Gorilla Story

Sir David Attenborough, the silky-voiced dean of nature TV, turns 100 in May, and he still has stories to tell. In a moving documentary directed by My Octopus Teacher‘s James Reed and produced by Life on Our Planet‘s Alastair Fothergill, Attenborough reflects on one of his most memorable animal encounters early in his remarkable career. He reads from his 1978 journals as archival footage depicts his first meeting with the baby gorilla Pablo in the Rwandan mountains as seen in his breakthrough documentary, 1979’s Life on Earth. Nearly 50 years later, filmmakers revisit the Silverbacks of Rwanda, filming over 250 days and several years to provide a fascinating update on Pablo’s descendants. Take it from Attenborough: “There is more meaning and mutual understanding in exchanging a glance of the gorilla than with any other animal I know.”

Your Friends & Neighbors

Coop (Jon Hamm) is caught red-handed, his cat-burglar act captured on camera by his mysterious and ultra-wealthy new neighbor Owen Ashe (James Marsden). “I like a guy who colors outside the box,” Ashe says, but what he really likes is having one of Westmont Village’s inner circle under his thumb. Or, as Coop sees it, the latest example of “my unrivaled ability to take a bad situation and make it so much worse.”

INSIDE FRIDAY TV:

• RuPaul’s Drag Race (8/7c, MTV): Miley Cyrus joins RuPaul on stage to crown a $200,000 winner in the Season 18 grand finale.
• Outlander (8/7c, Showtime): Fergus (César Domboy) and his family receive new threats while Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitríona Balfe) wrestle with the mystery surrounding Faith.
• Sheriff Country (8/7c, CBS): After Deputy Cassidy Campbell (Michele Weaver) is abducted, Sheriff Mickey (Morena Baccarin) and her team spring into action. Followed by Fire Country (9/8c), with an explosive oil well fire challenging multiple crews in an episode directed by series star Jules Latimer (Eve).
• Happy’s Place (8/7c, NBC): Bobbie (Reba McEntire) and Isabella (Belissa Escobedo) ask Steve (Pablo Castelblanco) to find a way to save the tavern some money. Replacing him with an AI accountant is probably not what they had in mind.
• Ramy Youssef: In Love (9/8c, HBO): The comedian-actor’s third HBO comedy special regales an audience at Chicago’s intimate Hideout with riffs on marriage, AI and religion.
• True Crime Watch: On Dateline NBC (9/8c), Keith Morrison interviews former MLB pitcher Dan Serafini, who insists he’s innocent after his conviction for shooting his in-laws in 2021 in Lake Tahoe. ABC‘s 20/20 (9/8c) explores the disappearance and death of a Las Vegas showgirl.
• Now Hear This (9/8c, PBS): Scott Yoo celebrates the enduring appeal of ragtime pioneer Scott Joplin, including a 21st-century revival of his opera Treemonisha.

 ON THE STREAM:

• NBA Play-In Tournament (7:30 pm/ET, streaming on Prime Video): The Charlotte Hornets take on the Orlando Magic, followed by the Golden State Warriors vs. the Phoenix Suns, with each victor earning an 8 seed.
• Full Swing (streaming on Netflix): With Rory McIlroy‘s back-to-back Masters wins still fresh in golf fans’ memories, the fourth season of the sports docuseries relives highlights of the 2025 season.
• Roommates (streaming on Netflix): A college comedy follows awkward freshman Devon (Sadie Sandler) through a turbulent year with her more worldly roomie Celeste (Chloe East).
• Hive (streaming on Tubi): Shades of Weapons in a supernatural thriller starring Xochitl Gomez as a teenage babysitter battling sinister forces in a playground.
• Night Patrol (streaming on Shudder): Jermaine Fowler (Superior Donuts) stars in a horror movie as an LAPD officer with a street-gang background who discovers the deadly secret behind a violent task force that only operates at night. You do the math.