Worth Watching: CMT Artists of the Year, ‘Chicago’ Outbreak Crossover

Chicago Fire - Season 8
Matt Dinerstein/NBC

A selective critical checklist of notable Wednesday TV:

2019 CMT Artists of the Year (8/7c, CMT): Honoring to day’s top talent in country music, with special tributes to a breakout star and a legend of the genre, CMT’s annual “Artists of the Year” marks its 10th anniversary with a live ceremony from Nashville. Honorees include Carrie Underwood, Dan + Shay, Kane Brown, Thomas Rhett and first-time winner Luke Combs (who earns a special performance from This Is Us star Chrissy Metz). Vince Gill shows up to present Reba McEntire with the “Artist of a Lifetime” award, while Ashley McBryde is named “Breakout Artist of the Year.” Many of the recipients will take the stage at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center along with special guests Lady Antebellum, Sam Hunt and more.

Chicago FireMedP.D. (8/7c, 9/8c, 10/9c, NBC): Crossover fever infects Dick Wolf‘s Chicago troika again, this time in the form of a deadly bacterial disease that breaks out at a Bears game (filmed in Soldier Field’s own parking lot with hundreds of extras) and leads to an apartment building that’s put under quarantined as the virus spreads. When bioterrorism is suspected, the Intelligence Unit gets busy on a major manhunt.

Survivor (8/7c, CBS): In a season that has already featured some satisfying blindsides early in the game, a reminder that some contestants seem not to understand how TV reality history repeats itself. A “showmance” between two castaways could paint a target on their backs. Why? Because this is Survivor, not Love Island.

Inside Wednesday TV: The Netflix documentary short Ghosts of Sugar Land, an award winner at Sundance, focuses on a group of Muslim Americans in suburban Houston who seek answers about the disappearance of a friend who converted to Islam before heading to college, and whose radicalized beliefs lead them to suspect he has joined ISIS… Also streaming: a second season of the YouTube Originals thriller Impulse, starring Maddie Hasson as a 17-year-old misfit who discovers she has the ability to teleport, which makes her a target for those who’d like to harness her powers… Jessica Biel stars in Facebook Watch’s Limetown, based on a popular podcast, about a public-radio journalist seeking answers to a 15-year-old mystery: What’s behind the vanishing of more than 300 people from a neuroscience research community in Tennessee? Stanley Tucci and Marlee Matlin are among the co-stars… File this under an accident waiting to happen. Comedy Central’s South Park (10/9c) finds Cartman suffering from a heart attack. He blames the new cafeteria food after the town adopts an all-plant-based diet.