A prime-time edition of Celebrity Jeopardy, done tournament-style, joins ABC’s Sunday game-show lineup. HBO’s House of the Dragon takes a significant time jump, introducing several new cast members. The Simpsons opens its 34th season, leading Fox’s Sunday night of animation. An all-star lineup performs at the 10th annual Global Citizen Festival, staged in Ghana and New York’s Central Park.
Jeopardy!
Celebrity Jeopardy!
SUNDAY: TV’s greatest quiz show begins a regular residency in prime time with an expanded celebrity edition, presented tournament-style. The first of nine quarterfinals, hosted by Mayim Bialik, features a previous Celebrity Jeopardy! champ, Andy Richter, going up against the charming Marvel star Simu Liu and Saturday Night Live’s Ego Nwodim. It’s a playful and collegial hour, with one contestant admitting amid a lapse in confidence, “There’s no game show that exposes stupidity the way that Jeopardy! does.” And yet, there are surprises. A new twist: a “Triple Jeopardy” round, with three Daily Doubles. The ultimate winner gets bragging rights, and $1 million for their charity. (Followed by the third-season opener of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune at 9/8c, with Insecure’s Amanda Seales, Snoop Dogg and The Morning Show’s Mark Duplass spinning the wheel.)
House of the Dragon
SUNDAY: My, how they’ve grown—and so quickly. The lavish Game of Thrones prequel moves its story of Targaryen palace intrigue forward with a 10-year time jump—which means cast changes for its two female leads. The excellent Milly Alcock will no longer be seen as restless Princess Rhaenyra, replaced by Emma D’Arcy, and as her frenemy the Queen Consort Alicent, Emily Carey is out and Olivia Cooke (Bates Motel) is in, reveling in the manipulative scheming as she throws shade on Rhaenyra’s offspring of questionable parentage. If you thought time might have mellowed the power plays being enacted at Kings Landing, you’d be wrong.
Fox
The Simpsons
SUNDAY: Did it really take 34 seasons for Homer Simpson to ask himself, “Am I really a stupid man?” In the Season 34 opener of the timeless animated sitcom, Homer seems to have finally noticed he’s a public laughingstock. He finds solace in an arena which so many other outliers have embraced: social media, where he joins a cabal of conspiracy-minded cybersleuths as they investigate the disappearance of Slow Leonard, an ancient zoo tortoise. In another epiphany, Homer notes: “The truth is different these days. It’s more of a hunch you’re willing to die for.” The Simpsons kicks off a full night of Fox animation, including Season 3 of The Great North (8:30/7:30c), Season 13 of Bob’s Burgers (9/8c) and Season 21 of Family Guy (9:30/8:30c), with parodies of Oscar winners The Silence of the Lambs, American Beauty and Forrest Gump.
Apple TV+
Global Citizen Festival
SATURDAY: The 10th anniversary concert special benefiting Global Citizen, calling on world leaders to end extreme poverty, takes place on two concurrent stages in Ghana’s Black Star Square and New York’s Central Park. The Walking Dead’s Danai Gurira hosts from Ghana, with performers including Usher and SZA, while Priyanka Chopra Jonas hosts from Central Park, with headliners including Mariah Carey, Billy Porter, Charlie Puth, Jonas Brothers, Metallica and Mickey Guyton. A two-hour compilation special airs Sunday at 5/4c on FX, and ABC screens highlights Sunday at 7/6c.
Inside Weekend TV:
- Champions for Change (Saturday 8 pm/ET, CNN): Dr. Sanjay Gupta hosts a special saluting 12 community leaders who have been spotlighted in a weeklong series of tributes.
- Finding Happy (Saturday, 8/7c, Bounce): B. Simone (Wild ’N Out) stars in a dramedy as a thirtysomething Atlanta woman who’s determined to find her own bliss after a meltdown at her surprise birthday party goes viral. Living Single’s Kim Coles co-stars as her widowed aunt, who’s got her own issues.
- 48 Hours (Saturday, 10/9c, CBS): The true-crime newsmagazine interviews Rick Ennis, who murdered his parents in 1993 when he was 12. Now charged with the disappearance and murder of an Alabama college grad in 2006, Ennis pleads his innocence.
- The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth (Sunday, 8/7c, Showtime): With midterm elections looming, hosts John Heilemann, Mark McKinnon and Jennifer Palmieri return with new episodes, taking stock of the nation’s volatile politics.
- Big Brother (Sunday, 8/7c, CBS): The 24th season ends with the winning houseguest walking away with the $750,000 grand prize, while the result of the fan-voted America’s Favorite Houseguest is revealed.
- Francesca Quinn, PI (Sunday, 9/8c, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries): Mallory Jensen is Frankie Quinn, a private investigator who’s hired to find her fiancé’s murderer and teams with her detective ex (Dylan Bruce), who’s also assigned to the case.
- Van Der Valk (Sunday, 9/8, PBS): Marc Warren returns for a second season as the Amsterdam detective in the first of three feature-length Masterpiece Mystery! episodes, investigating the grisly murder of a lawyer.
- The Rookie (Sunday, 10/9c, ABC): The police drama’s fifth season opens with Nolan (Nathan Fillion) face-to-face with serial killer Rosalind Dyer (Annie Wersching), while flirty officers Bradford (Eric Winter) and Chen (Melissa O’Neil) go, ahem, undercover.
- Outrageous Pumpkins (10/9c, Food Network, streaming on discovery+): Match your skills against seven ambitious carvers as they transform pumpkins in a four-week competition. In the opener, they’re challenged to create four nesting jack-o-lanterns that can stand on their own. Yes, folks, October is right around the corner.
