Worth Watching: Video Music Awards, ‘SNL’ Premiere, Emma Thompson on ‘Simpsons,’ More ‘Marble Hall’ Murders

MTV Video Music Awards

Madonna put this TV event on the map back in 1984 with her iconic rendition of Like a Virgin, and the irrepressible pop star could do it again, as this year’s most-nominated artist (with 11 nominations) opens the show with her first live performance on the VMAs in 23 years. Snoop Dogg hosts from Los Angeles as the VMAs returns to the West Coast for the first time since 2017. Highlights include Taylor Swift (nine nominations) introducing her new video to “Patient Zero,” starring Colin Farrell and Dakota Johnson, and receiving the inaugural MTV VMA Artist Director Honors. Kacey Musgraves performs a tribute to Dolly Parton, and a George Michael tribute features Raye, Sombr and Teddy Swims.

Saturday Night Live

With a summer’s worth of chaos to satirize, the late-night comedy series returns for its 52nd season. The show continues a long tradition of putting star athletes in the spotlight — past hosts include Travis Kelce, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter, Wayne Gretzky and Chris Evert — by opening the season with local New York hero Jalen Brunson, MVP of the championship New York Knicks, making his hosting debut. Girl group KATSEYE makes their first appearance as a musical guest. Chloe Fineman left the cast between seasons, but the ensemble welcomes two new featured players: Saidah Belo-Osagie and Grace Reiter.

The Simpsons

By the time this legendary animated hit finishes its run, if it ever does, everyone who’s anyone will have lent their voice to the merry madness of Springfield. To open the series’ 38th season, the great Emma Thompson guests with gusto as reclusive children’s book author Constance Clavinger, who’s come to town at PTA president Marge’s request to appear at a book fair in hopes of saving the school from closing. Unfortunately, Marge sends Homer to pick up Constance at the airport, and he’s too engrossed in his phone game to stop her from getting looped. “This pepper pot is off her trolley!” Homer laments, as he tries to remedy his latest fine mess. The Simpsons leads off a comedy lineup that includes the Season 5 premiere of the live-action Animal Control (8:30/7:30c), the Season 3 premiere of Universal Basic Guys (9/8c), and the Season 3 return of Grimsburg (9:30/8:30c) with a spoof of The Last of Us.

Marble Hall Murders

The body count rises in each of the parallel narratives of Anthony Horowitz‘s clever Masterpiece adaptation of his 2025 whodunit. In the real world, author Elliot Crace (Jamie Blackley) put a target on his back when he announced at a posh event, “You know who you are!”—referring to the death 20 years earlier of his famous grandmother and boasting that he hid a clue within his unfinished manuscript. With Elliot now in a coma after being struck by a hit-and-run, his editor Susan Ryeland (Lesley Manville) comes under suspicion, and as she looks for answers, the fictional detective Atticus Pünd (Tim McMullan) contends with another victim in steamy, scenic Corfu.

Lanterns

In the penultimate episode of the offbeat superhero saga, a buddy comedy of sorts develops between John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) and the backup version of the late ex-Lantern, Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler). Together, they’ll try to figure out who killed the actual Hal, about whom the sullen John barks, “I just wish I’d killed you.” All roads lead to the mystery box that Hal left behind, and where it takes them is, as the genre demands, out of this world.

Inside Weekend TV:

• Farm Aid 2026 (Saturday, 7 pm/ET, CNN): Anchors John Berman and Laura Coates host the annual fundraising concert from Virginia Beach, Virginia, with a scheduled lineup including Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, and more.
• Pumpkin Regatta Romance (Saturday, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel): Fall is in the air, and so is love, as Nadine (Mishael Morgan), daughter of a boat shop owner, and pumpkin farmer Ethan (Corey Sevier) team up to resolve their fathers’ family feud and get the town’s Pumpkin Regatta back on track.
• Sole Survivor of Flight 119 (Saturday, 8/7c, Lifetime): The Walking Dead‘s Sarah Wayne Callies stars in a fact-based survival story as Lisa, who’s the only survivor of a plane crash in the Mexican jungle. As she fights to make it out alive and reunite with her daughter, an airline executive (Parenthood‘s Joy Bryant) refuses to let her family give up hope.
• We Belong Here: The Story of Team Dream (Saturday, 9/8c, OWN): A documentary follows 12 women who form the first all-Black women’s professional volleyball team and prepare to compete in the USA Volleyball Open National Championship.
• Collector’s Call (Sunday, 6:30/5:30c, MeTV): As MeTV prepares to go all in on the classic The Wizard of Oz in October, Lisa Whelchel visits the Oz-themed collection of Tori Calamito, whose artifacts bridge the 1939 classic and the more recent Wicked.
• America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sunday, 7/6c, ABC): The endless parade of viral mishaps continues into a 37^th season, with host Alfonso Ribeiro debuting his Fab Five, starting with “Dogs Disrupting Weddings.”
• The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper (Sunday, 8/7c, CNN): Ed Lavandera reports “30 Days Inside: Hospitals and the Immigrant Workforce,” embedding himself inside a remote rural North Dakota hospital that relies on immigrant workers to provide critical care.
• Sunday Night Football (Sunday, 8:15 pm/ET, NBC): The Los Angeles Rams take on the Denver Broncos in the prime-time matchup.
• High Value Target: The Hunt for Saddam (Sunday, 9/8c, TNT): CIA analyst John Nixon (Joel Kinnaman) returns from his encounter with Iraq’s Saddam Hussein (Waleed Zuiaiter) with intel he is desperate to share with the White House.
• The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (Sunday, approx. midnight/ET, NBC): A special post-Sunday Night Football edition features Sylvester Stallone and Luke Bryan as guests.
• Bury. Print. (Sunday, streaming on Peacock): Rachel Maddow is among the producers of a true-crime documentary about a small-town Oklahoma newspaper that becomes the target of retaliation and intimidation when it reports on corruption within the county sheriff’s office.