A new era begins on Wheel of Fortune when Ryan Seacrest takes over as host of the long-running game show. Discover the otherworldly origins of coffee in a whimsical episode of Futurama. HBO presents the final season of My Brilliant Friend, based on Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels. A made-up disease and homecoming dance preparations add to the anxiety of FX’s English Teacher.
GMA / ABC
Wheel of Fortune
Like the never-ending wheel of time, Wheel of Fortune spins on indefinitely, but with a new host — Ryan Seacrest — joining Vanna White on a spiffed-up set for Season 42. The game hasn’t changed in this new era, and Seacrest (American Idol, so much more) is hardly a stranger to TV viewers, so expect a smooth transition. For those going through Pat Sajak withdrawal, the longtime host will be back before the camera for one more season of ABC’s Celebrity Wheel of Fortune starting next month. And if this change is still too much for you, rest assured that Ken Jennings is back for Season 41 of Jeopardy!, also returning this week, hopefully burdened with fewer tournaments than last season.
Mike Stobe / Getty Images
Monday Night Football
The NFL franchise returns in a simulcast, with the New York Jets at San Francisco 49ers. Jets’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers returns to the field after his Achilles tendon injury that sidelined him after just four plays in last year’s opening game. He’ll once again be facing defensive end Leonard Floyd, whose sack led to Rodgers’ injury when Floyd was with the Buffalo Bills. Now Floyd is on the squad of Super Bowl runners-up the 49ers. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman call the game in their 23rd season together, with Lisa Salters as sideline reporter. An alternate broadcast with Peyton and Eli Manning is available on ESPN2 and ESPN+, with former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick sitting in during the first half.
Disney / Matt Groening
Futurama
Opening with a clever homage to Stanley Kubrick’s iconic 2001: A Space Odyssey, the animated sci-fi comedy imagines an otherworldly origin story explaining how the addictive brew of coffee came to possess humankind across our fair planet. When Hermes (voiced by Phil LaMarr) takes over his family’s coffee farm in Jamaica, he and the professor discover the magic beans’ alien history, unearthing an especially potent variety that transforms Planet Express into Planet Espresso. “Do you make decaf, too?” the professor asks the interlopers from Planet Thermos. Their reply: “We’re aliens, not perverts!”
Eduardo Castaldo / HBO
My Brilliant Friend
The fourth and final season of the acclaimed Italian-language drama based on Elena Farrante’s concluding volume, The Story of the Lost Child, catches up with childhood friends Elena (Alba Rohrwacher) and Lila (Irene Maiorino) as adults, brought back together in Naples in the 1980s. Amid political and social turmoil, their complicated lives intertwine, with Lila dropping a bombshell about Elena’s lover.
Steve Swisher / FX
English Teacher
In this inspired high-school workplace comedy, it’s hard to tell who’s more neurotic, the teachers or their students. Evan (Brian Jordan Alvarez, who wrote the episode) doesn’t quite know how to react when one of his more easily triggered students (Romy Mars as Kayla) announces she’s suffering from a new disease, “asymptomatic Tourette’s,” which is strictly self-diagnosable. Coach Markie (Sean Patton), who’s unexpectedly gifted at reading social signals, sees what’s going on, but first, there’s a homecoming dance to plan, and Principal Moretti (Enrico Colantoni) puts Evan in charge along with temp teacher Harry (Langston Kerman), to whom he’s attracted. Is the feeling mutual?
INSIDE MONDAY TV:
- Flip Side (syndicated, check local listings): Jaleel White hosts a syndicated game show in which two teams predict how two very different groups of people respond to the same question in anonymous surveys. Episodes will appear on the Game Show Network starting next week.
- American Ninja Warrior (8/7c, NBC): In the season finale, the remaining ninjas compete in Stage 3 and 4 for the $1 million grand prize.
- Name That Tune (8/7c, Fox): More finales, with the musical game show wrapping its latest season, followed by the Season 1 finale of The 1% Club (9/8c).
- The King of Queens (8/7c, COZI TV): The long-running comedy starring Kevin James and Leah Remini joins COZI’s prime-time lineup in a two-hour block. Watch for an 11-hour marathon on September 15.
- 61st Street (9/8c, The CW): The legal drama wraps its second season with Franklin’s (Courtney B. Vance) closing remarks, while Officer Logan (Mark O’Brien) gets an unexpected offer.
- The Real Murders on Elm Street (9/8c, Investigation Discovery): A true-crime series focuses on murders in suburbia. Followed by the premiere of the horror-inflected Cabin in the Woods (10/9c), where the bad deeds unfold in remote cabins far from civilized society.
