Worth Watching: Democratic Candidate Debates, a ‘Real Sports’ Broadcasting Legend, Shark Week’s ‘Air Jaws’
A selective critical checklist of notable Tuesday TV:
Democratic Presidential Debates (8/7c, CNN): With a field still so big the debates are split between two nights (the remainder appearing Wednesday), 20 primary contenders will appear for a second round of Qs and As on the stage of Detroit’s Fox Theatre, with CNN’s Don Lemon, Dana Bash and Jake Tapper moderating. The first night’s headliners include Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Beto O’Rourke, Amy Klobuchar — and for comic (or possibly spiritual) relief, Marianne Williamson among too many others. Seriously, people, get a grip, or a reality check, and cull this herd.
As has become the practice, late-night comics will go live with commentary, including Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (11/10c), CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (11:35/10:35c) and NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers (12:35am/11:35c).
Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (10/9c, HBO): The acclaimed monthly sports magazine honors a broadcasting legend when host Gumbel interviews John Sterling, who has called New York Yankees games on the radio for three decades — and until July, he hadn’t missed a game for 5,060 straight, including five World Series titles. In other segments, correspondent David Scott investigates an epidemic of video-game addiction and Andrea Kremer profiles rapper/actor Ice Cube, focusing on his ventures as an entrepreneur in the sports arena.
Air Jaws Strikes Back (10/9c, Discovery): The popular franchise within the Shark Week franchise returns with Chris Fallows and his team of researchers filming a remarkable standoff between seals and great whites in waters off South Africa. Have the predators met their match when the seals join forces to mount a counterattack? The night’s other new offerings include Sharkwrecked: Crash Landing (8/7c), in which two adventurers bail out of a plane to crash-land in the shark-infested waters of Palua, to see what happens next. In the similarly themed Laws of Jaws: Dangerous Waters (9/8c), the hosts re-enact five shark attacks in experiments designed to speculate alternate endings to these harrowing encounters.
Inside Tuesday TV: Comedian/producer Whitney Cummings returns to her Washington, D.C., hometown for her first Netflix stand-up special, Whitney Cummings: Can I Touch It? As the title suggests, expect much pungent humor exploring the dynamics of empowered women and the men in their wake who may need to be woke… Hannah makes her final choice on the finale of ABC’s The Bachelorette (8/7c), and whether it’s a match made in TV heaven remains to be seen… What’s up with Patti LuPone as the devious real-estate diva on FX’s Pose (10/9c)? One minute she’s belting out Sondheim’s “I’m Still Here” at the AIDS cabaret, the next she’s shutting down Blanca’s (Mj Rodriguez) salon. The House of Evangelista strikes back this week, planning a prank that is bound to get under Frederica’s heavily made-up skin.
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