Pond5/NGC
Sharkfest
SUNDAY: Just when you thought it was safe to… who are we kidding, summer wouldn’t be complete without TV’s deep dives into cutting-edge shark documentaries. (Discovery’s Shark Week waits until July 23 to emerge.) Promising 22 hours of original programming and 50-plus hours of enhanced content over many of Disney’s streaming and cable properties, the Sharkfest wallow begins with Bull Shark Bandits, which explores the possibility of rising shark intelligence with reports of bull sharks stealing from Australian fishermen. Followed on Sunday by Shark Eat Shark (9/8c), investigating shark-on-shark attacks in South Africa; and Saved from a Shark (10/9c), where scientists debate whether dolphins or whales will deliberately rescue a human from an attack. Actual survivors stand by their stories. Episodes are also available for streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Brandi Carlile: In the Canyon Haze
SATURDAY: The dazzling Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and classic folk rocker performs from the scenic L.A. neighborhood that in its heyday housed the likes of Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and so many more. Brandi Carlile honors that tradition with a concert including music from her album In These Silent Days, paying homage to her musical influences and no doubt inspiring a few of her own.
Matt Barnes/CBS
Tough as Nails
SUNDAY: A dozen skilled workers from the U.S. and Canada join the fifth season of the grueling competition series hosted by The Amazing Race’s Phil Keoghan, with two firefighters, a motorcycle builder, an ironworker, a toolmaker and a self-described “Jack of all trades” among the contestants. The two-hour premiere, filmed in the steel town of Hamilton (“The Hammer”), Ontario, opens with an individual challenge in which they’re tasked to cut, grind and torch 500 pounds of scrap metal. The first two to finish get to choose their teams, once again divided into Dirty Hands and Savage Crew. The series now airs on Sundays and Fridays, with a new episode July 7.
©Universal TV/courtesy Everett Collection
Murder She Wrote
SUNDAY: Film and stage star Angela Lansbury enjoyed her greatest TV success as mystery writer and intrepid sleuth Jessica Fletcher over 12 seasons (with as many Emmy nominations). Murder, She Wrote joins the Start TV’s female-skewing crime lineup (Rizzoli & Isles, The Closer, Major Crimes, In Plain Sight) with a July 4th holiday weekend marathon lasting 69 hours, including two TV movies, concluding on Wednesday at 9 am/8c, when the regular schedule begins (9 am/8c, 10 am/9c and 4 pm/3c daily).
Courtesy of Mammoth Screen and MASTERPIECE
Endeavour
SUNDAY: With callouts to the past and a nod to its Inspector Morse future, the enduring Masterpiece mystery ends its ninth season run on a bittersweet note, with Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans) resolving troubling aspects of the Blenheim Case while tackling a puzzle involving mysterious death notices in the Oxford Mail. But will he get the girl? Not likely, as Joan Thursday (Sara Vickers) prepares to walk down the aisle with Jim Strange (Sean Rigby) and Morse bids farewell to his partnership with her dad, DCI Fred Thursday (Roger Allam).
INSIDE WEEKEND TV:
- Tour de France (6 am/ET, Peacock, 8 am/ET, NBC): The world’s most prestigious (and visually hypnotic) race in men’s cycling sets off from Bilbao, Spain for Stage 1 of a grueling three-week odyssey.
- Godzilla Channel (launches Saturday, Pluto TV): The “king of the monsters” gets his own 24/7 channel, with more than 30 films (including such rarities as Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah and Godzilla vs. Biollante) and the animated 1998-200 animated series. Pluto also refreshes its “Popcorn Summer Movies” roster in July with scores of new titles, including four Mission: Impossible movies in advance of the release this month of Dead Reckoning Part One.
- The Lazarus Project (Saturday, 10 am/9c, and Sunday, 9/8c, TNT): Catch up on the time-tripping sci-fi thriller with a mini-marathon of the first four episodes on Saturday. Then watch the fifth on Sunday, where George (Paapa Essiedu) takes increasingly desperate measures to be able to turn back time, even if it means framing an innocent Lazarus employee as the rogue agent.
- Rod, White & Blue: A Twilight Zone Celebration (Sunday, noon/11c, H&I): Moving to the H&I channel after five years on Decades, the annual marathon of Rod Serling’s classic anthology features 86 episodes over three days, concluding July 4 at noon/11c.
- Deadly Adventure: Trip to the Titanic (Sunday, 8/7c, CNN): In a special edition of The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper, correspondent Randi Kaye investigates the tragedy of the Titan submersible with the latest information on the debris search and interviews with experts and people close to the doomed passengers.
- America in Black (Sunday, 10/9c, BET and BET Her): Correspondent Danya Bacchus addresses the rising Black maternity mortality rate with Vice President Kamala Harris in an exclusive interview. The episode also features segments on the Afrobeats music movement and profiles of religious leader T.D. Jakes and artist Kehinde Wiley.
- The Righteous Gemstones (Sunday, 10/9c, HBO): Smug-as-sin Jesse Gemstone (Danny McBride) learns he’d better keep his filthy mouth shut after being inducted into the elite Cape & Pistol secret society of religious leaders. And sister Judy’s (Edi Patterson) sins may catch up with her when her relentless ex-lover Stephen (Stephen Schneider) makes contact with her clueless husband BJ (Tim Baltz)—on a pickleball court.