Summer Olympics Passes the Torch, Black Film History, ‘SEAL Team’ Final Season, ‘Industry’ Back in Business

SATURDAY & SUNDAY: All eyes are on men’s basketball’s Team USA taking on host country France in the gold-medal final on Saturday (3:30 pm/ET, NBC), after having narrowly defeating Serbia. The women’s final airs Sunday (9:30 am/ET, NBC), with Team USA again facing the French team, as prelude to the Closing Ceremonies (3 pm/ET, NBC), when the magnificent flame will be extinguished, and the Olympic flag passed on to representatives of the L.A. Summer Games in 2028. Miss it during the day, and NBC repeats the ceremony (with medalists Katie Ledecky and Nick Mead as Team USA flag bearers) in prime time starting at 7/6. Other highlights include women’s soccer Team USA vs. Brazil in the gold-medal match (Saturday, 11 am/ET, USA Network), track and field finals (Saturday, 1:10 pm/ET, NBC) and the introduction of men’s breaking (Saturday, 10:30 am/ET, E!). NBC’s “Primetime in Paris” show (Saturday, 8/7c) presents all of the highlights, with all events livestreamed on Peacock. For a full schedule, go to nbcolympics.com.

Series Premiere

10/9c

SUNDAY: From the indignity of blackface minstrelsy in the silent-film era to the blockbuster heroism of Black Panther in the modern Marvel era, the four-part Hollywood Black from host-director Justin Simien (Dear White People) is a fascinating cultural critique of Black representation in American cinema. Simien acts as professor and superfan as he screens clips and provides context to the films of breakout stars from Sidney Poitier to Pam Grier and groundbreaking filmmakers including Ava DuVernay and Spike Lee. “I want us to get excited about reclaiming our land in the so-called entertainment industry,” says Simien. His excitement is palpable and will make you want to watch these movies again — or maybe make a discovery or two.

Season Premiere

SUNDAY: The toll of combat looms large as the military drama (formerly on CBS) begins its seventh and final season with a two-episode opener. Bravo Team leader Jason Hayes (David Boreanaz) and his crew have been temporarily sidelined as punishment for Jason’s public declaration of his battlefield-induced Traumatic Brain Injury at a Navy Cross ceremony. Are they happy campers? Most definitely not. But when a training mission sends them to Sweden, they inadvertently find themselves back in action — with Jason in command and control, though not always of the aftershocks.

Season Premiere

9/8c

SUNDAY: High finance has rarely looked sexier than in this London-set drama, returning for a third season with Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington entering the mix as Pierpoint & Co. investment bank’s latest high-profile client: Sir Henry Muck (how Dickensian), the offbeat CEO of a green-tech energy company on the verge of going public. Sudsy subplots involve the ambitious Harper (Myha’la), who was bounced by Pierpoint for faking her college transcripts and aligns herself with a hedge-fund group (Barry’s Sarah Goldberg plays the portfolio manager), and Harper’s heiress frenemy Yasmin (Marisa Abela), whose family fortunes are in jeopardy after her dad goes off the grid amid embezzlement allegations. And you thought jockeying for the Iron Throne was perilous.

8:30/7:30c

SUNDAY: Ron Howard’s Emmy-nominated documentary profile of the genius behind the Muppets (which premiered earlier this year on Disney+) receives a well-deserved broadcast debut. Idea Man reveals a restless creative spirit with the soul of an experimental filmmaker. Colleagues and family members recall a visionary racing against time to realize his goals, conquering his favorite medium of television (with Sesame Street and The Muppet Show), then creating new fantasy worlds with movies whose reputation grew after Henson’s untimely death in 1990 at 53. Classic clips, priceless outtakes and home movies enhance this memorable tribute. (See the full review.)

INSIDE WEEKEND TV:

• Summer Under the Stars: Meryl Streep (Saturday, starts at 6 am/5c, Turner Classic Movies): How is it possible that this is the first time the three-time Oscar winner has been honored in TCM’s monthlong series of 24-hour tributes? The 11-film marathon begins with 1977’s Julia opposite Jane Fonda and includes her first two Oscar triumphs: 1979’s Kramer vs. Kramer (6 pm/5c) and 1982’s Sophie’s Choice (8/7c). Fan favorite Cary Grant is the star of the day on Sunday.
• Miss Cleo: Her Rise and Fall (Saturday, 8/7c, Lifetime): Rapper Robin “The Lady of Rage” Allen stars as cult-TV personality Miss Cleo (aka Youree Dell Harris), who shot to fame in the late 1990s and early 2002s in infomercials as the face of the Psychic Readers Network. The biopic, directed by Tim Reid, depicts her dilemma when the network is exposed for deceptive advertising and fraud practices, and Miss Cleo becomes the fall guy.
• TV Movie Marquee: Skyler Samuels (Aurora Teagarden Mysteries) stars in Hallmark Channel’s My Dreams of You (Saturday, 8/7c) as Grace, whose meeting with the literal man who inhabits her dreams (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist’s Kapil Talwalkar) takes an unexpected turn. Great American Family’s God’s Country Song (Saturday, 8/7c) features musician-actor Justin Gaston as a rising country star who learns to put career and family in the proper balance.
• Mammals (Saturday, 8/7c, BBC America): The nature series heads to the Australian Outback and the Sahara Desert to reveal how mammals adapt to beat the heat and stay hydrated.
• CBS News Sunday Morning (Sunday, 9 am/ET, check local listings): Robert Costa talks with President Biden in his first TV interview since deciding not to seek re-election. The original star of Once Upon a Mattress, the legendary Carol Burnett, and Sutton Foster (who stars in the Broadway revival as Princess Winifred) chat with Tracy Smith.
• American Godfathers: The Five Families (Sunday, 8/7c, History Channel): Over three nights (continuing Monday and Tuesday), a docuseries from executive producer-narrator Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos) charts the violent history of New York City’s five mob families.
• Snowpiercer (Sunday, 9/8c, AMC): It’s an uneasy reunion aboard Snowpiercer when Layton (Daveed Diggs) and his team sneak aboard the train from Big Alice to find his kidnapped daughter. He insists this is “an extraction, not a revolution,” but plans have a way of going sideways.
• To Be Destroyed (Sunday, 9/8c, MSNBC): A documentary special depicts author Dave Eggers confronting censorship as he meets with students and teachers in the Rapid City, South Dakota school district, which pulled his novel The Circle and other controversial books from their shelves.