Worth Watching: A Vigil for Kate on ‘This Is Us,’ Daddy Issues on ‘NCIS,’ ‘Bachelor’ Finale and ‘Videos After Dark’ on ABC

This Is Us - Season 3
Ron Batzdorff/NBC

A selective critical checklist of notable Tuesday TV:

This Is Us (9/8c, NBC): The latest Pearson family trauma revolves around Kate (Chrissy Metz), who has gone into premature labor at 28 weeks. Not the best time for twin Kevin (Justin Hartley) to relapse and fall off the wagon, making for an excruciatingly tense and awkward vigil in “The Waiting Room” (the episode title). With the whole clan walking on eggshells — Randall (Sterling K. Brown) and Beth (Susan Kelechi Watson) are barely speaking, over work and money matters — and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) reliving her own worst day ever in a hospital waiting room, the emotional stakes as usual are very high.

NCIS (8/7c, CBS): Straight-arrow medical examiner Jimmy (Brian Dietzen) is in an ethical pickle, when his father-in-law Ed (guest star Larry Miller) asks him to tamper with evidence in a murder investigation. And while Tony is long gone, his father Anthony DiNozzo, Sr. (Robert Wagner) is back on the scene. He’s one of Ed’s poker buddies, and is eager to help with the case, whether they need it or not.

A Star Is Born (8/7c, Turner Classic Movies): Still reeling from the Oscar snubs of Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga at this year’s Oscars? It’s nothing new. Turner Classic Movies’ star of the month, Fredric March, was Oscar-nominated as the tragic Norman Maine for the first film version of A Star Is Born in 1937, leading this week’s March tribute. (He lost to Spencer Tracy in Captains Courageous.) The March salute continues with his performance in the same year opposite Carole Lombard in the tart comedy Nothing Sacred (10/9c) and as the embattled Jean Valjean in 1935’s Les Miserables (11:30/10:30c), opposite Charles Laughton’s Javert.

The Bachelor (8/7c, ABC): It took two nights to close out the latest season, but Colton will finally make a decision on the two-hour finale, with Colton joining Chris Harrison in studio for a live chat. And what Bachelor finale would be complete without passing the baton to another retread to announce the identity of the next Bachelorette?

Videos After Dark (10/9c, ABC): Bob Saget is back introducing videos on ABC, but much like his stand-up persona is considerably edgier and snarkier that he could ever be on America’s Funniest Home Videos or Full House, this new series of video clips from producer Vin Di Bona’s vault promises — or threatens — a darker humor, with meaner animals, less adorable tykes and more mature mishaps. This episode is a “sneak peek” preview of a series to be launched later this year.

Inside Tuesday TV: From Dublin, Ireland, local jokester Jimmy Carr lets the shocking one-liners fly in the Netflix stand-up special Jimmy Carr: The Best of, Ultimate, Gold, Greatest Hits… A new season of Fox’s MasterChef Junior (8/7c) introduces 24 new junior cooks in a two-hour premiere… Necar Zadegan (Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce) takes center stage in CBS’s NCIS: New Orleans (10/9c) as Hannah, when she and her family are placed in protective custody after a terrorist arrives on the scene with a personal vendetta.