Worth Watching: Nick News Returns With Message of Unity, Lifetime Revives ‘Prayers for Bobby,’ a ‘Cannonball’ Preview

Cannonball NBC
Eddy Chen/NBC/USA Network

A selective critical checklist of notable Monday TV:

Kids, Race and Unity: A Nick News Special (7/6c, Nickelodeon): For 25 years, under the leadership of the great (and now-retired) Linda Ellerbee, Nick News helped put the most pressing and sensitive of current-affairs issues in perspective for young audiences. The tradition continues with a series of specials in the months to come, beginning with a spotlight on racial equality and social justice. Alicia Keys hosts the hourlong special, which fields questions from kids to leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement, teen activists and a family therapist among other experts.

Prayers for Bobby (8/7c, Lifetime): Inspired by the recent Supreme Court ruling protecting the LBGTQ community from workplace discrimination, Lifetime presents a 10th-anniversary broadcast of the Emmy-nominated movie. Sigourney Weaver stars as Mary Griffith, who comes to regret her religion-fueled intolerance of her son Bobby’s (Ryan Kelley) homosexuality after his suicide, becoming an advocate for gay rights. (The real Mary passed away in February.) Bobby will be followed by 2019’s Trapped: The Alex Cooper Story (10/9c), starring Addison Holley as 15-year-old Alex, whose Mormon parents send her to “conversion therapy” after she comes out as gay, and after she escapes, she becomes a crusader, lobbying the Utah legislature to ban the practice for minors.

Cannonball (10/9c, NBC): Wipeout too tame for you? Dipping its toe in the water with a sneak preview, in advance of the show’s July 9 premiere on USA, this competition series isn’t afraid to be called all wet. WWE’s Mike “The Miz” Mizanin and Rosci Diaz host the game show, in which contestants navigate elaborate water obstacles, from a 100-foot water slide to a stomach-churning drop tower, with a $10,000 cash prize at stake for the soggiest winner.

Inside Monday TV: Acorn TV imports the eight-part Danish mystery (with English subtitles) The Sommerdahl Murders, starring Peter Mygind as Detective Chief Inspector Dan Sommerdahl, whose investigation of a woman’s murder — and search for the baby she had just given birth to — is complicated when he learns that his wife, a chief criminal technician, is involved with his best friend and fellow detective on the case… Chopped fans have voted for their favorite episodes on Instagram, and they can savor the results as Chopped Fan Faves air Mondays at 10/9c and 11/10c… PBS’s POV documentary series presents its first two-part miniseries, And She Could Be Next (9/8c, concludes Tuesday, check local listings at pbs.org). The film, produced over 2018 and 2019, employs a team entirely of women of color to tell the story of progressive women of color who are set on transforming the political landscape.