‘Millionaire’ Hits 25, Serena Williams ‘In the Arena,’ NFL’s Receivers, Rashida Jones and a Robot Named Sunny

In the Arena: Serena Williams

As we watch a new generation of tennis champion emerge at Wimbledon and other Grand Slams, ESPN+ revisits the astonishing career and staying power of Serena Williams in an eight-part docuseries. She looks back at her 27 years on the court (and sometimes off) in revealing interviews, starting by declaring, “The best thing that happened to my career was coming up behind my sister [Venus].” The first episode, “Out of the Shadow,” depicts Serena’s youth growing up in Compton as Venus establishes the Williams brand, then beginning her pro career at 17 and winning the first of her 23 Grand Slams at the 1999 U.S. Open.

Expedition Unknown

The centerpiece of Shark Week’s fourth night is a special edition of Josh Gates’ popular series, where he teams up with a shark biologist to search amid shark-infested waters for a ship sunk by a Nazi U-boat during World War II. Earlier, Great White North (8/7c) explores the waters of Nova Scotia’s coastline where Great White sharks have unexpectedly become aggressive. And in Alien Sharks: Ghosts of Japan (10/9c), a wildlife biologist, a deep-sea marine scientist and other experts study unusual shark species around Japan, witnessing the birth of obscure Velvet Dogfish sharks.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

A quarter-century ago, ABC took a big swing and began airing Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (then hosted by the late Regis Philbin) every night of the week, a stunt that paid off with huge ratings—until the show burned itself out. Still, Millionaire continued in various formats in syndication and prime time, and to mark the 25^th anniversary with a new summer season, host Jimmy Kimmel welcomes pairs of celebrities to answer questions of escalating difficulty in a quest to win $1 million for their charities. The opener, which feels more like a comedy than quiz show, features the hilarious John Mulaney and Nick Kroll as the first guests, followed by childhood Nickelodeon pals Kenan Thompson (now a Saturday Night Live fixture) and Kel Mitchell. Followed by the Season 3 premiere of Claim to Fame (9/8c), with hosts Kevin and Franklin Jonas introducing a new set of 11 fame-adjacent relatives who’ll do their best to keep the identity of their bloodline a secret.

Receiver

Having scored with its Quarterback sports docuseries, Netflix returns to the game with an intimate look at the guys on the field who catch and make good on those incredible passes. Over eight episodes, Receiver profiles five of the NFL’s best pass catchers on and off the gridiron during the 2023-24 season, with subjects including the Raiders’ Davante Adams, the Vikings’ Justin Jefferson, the Lions’ Amon-Ra St. Brown and from the Super Bowl contender 49ers, George Kittle and Deebo Samuel.

Sunny

Rashida Jones (Parks and Recreation) exercises her dramatic chops in an offbeat near-future sci-fi dramedy hybrid about a woman and her A.I. robot named Sunny. Jones is Suzie, an expat living in Japan, who’s wracked with grief when her husband and son go missing and are presumed dead after a plane crash. When the husband’s tech-giant employer gifts Suzie with an A.I. “homebot” companion named Sunny as consolation, Suzie is less than thrilled, finding these bots creepy—and she’s not wrong. But Sunny is awfully perky and determined to be there for the grieving woman. And when Suzie begins snooping into what really happened to her family, Sunny proves to be quite resourceful. Launches with two episodes.

 

INSIDE WEDNESDAY TV:

• MasterChef: Generations (8/7c, Fox): Chefs of multiple generations work with aged and fermented ingredients to make a dish worthy of gaining the all-important immunity pin. Followed by Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars(9/8c), where the nine remaining entrepreneurs on Teams Ramsay and Vanderpump visit the International Food and Drink Event to pitch weird kitchen gizmos.
• Dynamic Planet (8/7c, PBS): The climate-change docuseries ends its four-week run, having explored regions of ice, fire and water. The series concludes on our unstable terra firma, studying Alaska’s thawing permafrost and a plague of locusts in South Africa, while spotlighting efforts to restore biodiversity to a suffering planet.
• Quad Gods (9/8c, HBO): The title subjects of this inspiring documentary are three New Yorkers who turn their quadriplegia to their advantage by forming the first all-quadriplegic esports team. Video gameplay is a tool used by Dr. David Putrino of Mount Sinai Hospital’s Abilities Research Center to aid recovery and reflect these players’ never-give-up spirit.
• Reginald the Vampire (10/9c, Syfy): Season 2 of the supernatural comedy ends with Reginald (Jacob Batalon) facing the consequences after following his heart.
• Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years (streaming on Paramount+): As the original SpongeBob SquarePants celebrates its 25^th anniversary this year, Season 2 of the animated spinoff welcomes the underwater denizens back to summer camp.