WWII’s Heroes of Color, ‘1% Club,’ Gypsy Rose After Prison, ‘American Ninja Warrior’

Documentary Premiere

9/8c

Idris Elba (Luther) narrates and is an executive producer of a four-part docuseries that explores the contributions of the Greatest Generation’s often forgotten soldiers of color, using archival footage and dramatizations to tell their stories. The back-to-back opening episodes profile three Black sailors who survived Pearl Harbor and then follows the members of the 320^th Barrage Balloon Battalion on D-Day, the only all-Black combat unit to storm the beaches. Earlier at 8/7c, the documentary The Real Red Tails, narrated by Abbott Elementary’s Sheryl Lee Ralph, aims to uncover an 80-year-old mystery with the help of underwater archeologists, hoping to explain why Tuskegee Airman Frank Moody’s P-39 airplane went down in Lake Huron, Michigan, in April 1944.

9/8c

Closer to a classic quiz show than the summer TV norm, this game of brainteasers is hosted by Patton Oswalt, a natural with quippy banter, engaging several of the 100 contestants surrounding him while they’re tested on “logic, common sense and how your brain actually works.” The players vie for a possible pot of $100,000 by answering 15 increasingly tough questions, starting with one aced by 90 percent of surveyed Americans. As the playing field is narrowed, the odds also narrow, ending with a stumper that only 1 percent got right. (Whoever’s left at the end can choose to walk away with half of a lesser payday or try to answer the final question in hopes of cashing in big time.) Preceded by the Season 4 summer premiere of Name That Tune (8/7c), with Queer Eye’s Karamo Brown taking on The Bachelorette’s Kaitlyn Bristowe in the first round.

Series Premiere

9/8c

Notoriety continues to follow Gypsy Rose Blanchard after eight years of serving time for murdering her abusive mother (a story told in an HBO documentary and the Hulu docudrama The Act). Released on parole in December 2023 and featured in Lifetime’s The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard earlier this year, the 32-year-old now consents to having her life on the outside captured in an eight-part docuseries. Cameras follow her as she struggles to leave the past behind while coping with her own high profile. Maybe it would be easier to start fresh and forge a fresh identity and new relationships if she’d retreat for a while from such public view.

Season Premiere

8/7c

Another sure sign of encroaching summer is the return of the grueling competition on daunting obstacle courses. Co-hosts Matt Iseman, Akbar Gbajabiamila and Zuri Hall return to call the action as the qualifying rounds get underway in L.A., with contestants eyeing that Mega Warped Wall. Followed by a new episode of Weakest Link (10/9c) on its new night.

Season Premiere

8/7c

New episodes of the long-running series return with an exploration of the mysteries surrounding Egypt’s King Tutankhamun, including what might have ended the life of the young king 3,330 years ago. Followed by the series premiere of Holy Marvels with Dennis Quaid (10/9c), which peers into the legends of holy relics and sacred objects often lost to history. Watch the opener with the Indiana Jones theme playing, as it deals with the search for the Ark of the Covenant and for Noah’s Ark.

INSIDE MONDAY TV:

• The Chosen (7 pm/ET, BYUtv.org): Season 4 episodes of the historical drama about Jesus Christ (Jonathan Roumie) and his followers are available for streaming, including on the BYUtv app, on Mondays and Fridays (8:30 pm/ET). Linear airings on BYUtv begin on Sundays (9 pm/ET) starting June 9, with replays on Wednesdays (9/8c).
• Battle on the Beach (9/8c, HGTV): Channel stars Ty Pennington, Taniya Nayak and Alison Victoria head to Oak Island, North Carolina, for another epic surfside home-renovation competition, each taking on a similar four-bedroom, two-bathroom waterfront home.
• Below Deck Mediterranean (9/8c, Bravo): Capt. Sandy Yawn sets sail with her contentious crew aboard the M/Y Mustique around Athens, Greece when Season 9 opens with a 75-minute supersized episode.
• Deadly Influence: The Social Media Murders (9/8c, Investigation Discovery): Stars on Instagram, TikTok and other platforms discover the dark side of Internet fame in a new true-crime series. First subject: Las Vegas “sex and fitness guru” Ash, whose breakup with another influencer sends him on a downward spiral.
• Theresa Caputo: Raising Spirits (10:15/9:15c, Lifetime): The Long Island medium is back in a series of specials, starting with visits to jails including a spirit reading in the laundry of a men’s prison.
• How I Met Your Mother (streaming on Netflix): Get ready for a … wait for it … legendary binge when all nine seasons of the romcom head to the streaming giant.