‘House of the Dragon’ Finale, ‘Chosen in the Wild,’ ‘Mega-Brands’ Game Makers, the NASCAR Story

House of the Dragon

SUNDAY: The balance of power among the warring Targaryens has shifted yet again, setting up new battle lines for the Game of Thrones prequel’s Season 3 finale. With the re-emergence of deposed and disfigured King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) and his dragon, Sunfyre, Queen Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) uneasy hold on the Iron Throne is less steady than ever. As Daemon (Matt Smith) leads Rhaenyra’s supporters into battle, expect plenty of Fire & Blood — the name of George R.R. Martin‘s book on which the series is based.

The Chosen in the Wild with Bear Grylls

SUNDAY: A St. Christopher medal might come in handy for this docuseries, featuring stars of the global hit biblical drama The Chosen as they join noted TV adventurer Bear Grylls on a trek through some of the nation’s most rugged terrain. Jonathan Roumie (Jesus), Paras Patel (Matthew), Elizabeth Tabish (Mary Magdalene), Noah James (Andrew), Luke Dimyan (Judas), and series creator Dallas Jenkins embark on a journey with the devout Grylls, who has authored faith-based books including Soul Fuel and The Greatest Story Ever Told. He leads the group as they jump from planes, scale cliffs, and zipline over canyons in locations including Utah’s Castle Valley, the Great Basin Desert, and the Adirondacks. It’s a test of endurance but also an exploration of their spirituality as they commune with nature.

The Mega-Brands That Built America

SUNDAY: “Come on down!” “The survey says.” “Let’s make it a true Daily Double.” Brands don’t get much bigger than TV’s most iconic game shows, with catchphrases that have stood the test of time. The Mega-Brands series turns to the colorful history of TV visionaries Mark Goodson, a producer who got started in radio, and Merv Griffin, the former nightclub singer whom Goodson hired to host one of his many game shows and went on to become his greatest rival, creating Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune to compete with Goodson hits, most notably The Price Is Right and his syndicated smash Family Feud. The episode shows how these concepts evolved and continue to grow decades later. Among the experts interviewed: Jeopardy! champ Austin Rogers.

NASCAR Americana

SUNDAY: A three-part docuseries explores the rise of NASCAR from dirt tracks to speedways, starting with its “Rebel Roots” among Prohibition-era moonshiners. The opener tracks the sport’s official founding in the late 1940s and the establishment of the Daytona 500 as an American tradition, with cameras following third-generation NASCAR driver Ryan Blaney as he prepares for this year’s Daytona race. Future installments are scheduled to air Saturday, August 15, and Sunday, August 23.

The Walking Dead: Dead City

SUNDAY: “Building a safe community is one of the hardest things in the world,” says Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan), who knows whereof she speaks. Her and Renata’s (Aimee Garcia) controversial decision to power up the Statue of Liberty as a beacon to attract new settlers to a post-apocalypse Manhattan has consequences when two rival factions from across the river pour into their hospital’s overwhelmed and under-resourced triage unit. The Pitt looks like a playground compared to this ER, where Luis (Raúl Castillo) and his young protégé Hershel (Logan Kim) tend to the wounded, while Renata wonders, “What if we heal them only for one of them to take over?” Maybe should have thought of that before lighting the torch.

INSIDE WEEKEND TV:

• Absolutely Devoted to You (Saturday, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel): Kimberley Sustad is a TV producer whose brainstorm to reunite a ’90s boy band gets complicated by her crush on the lead singer (Jesse Metcalfe).
• She Stole My Son’s Heart (Saturday, 8/7c, Lifetime): The title’s not a metaphor in the suspense tale of a missing persons detective (Riverdale‘s Marisol Nichols) searching for a heart-transplant patient (Taylor Hickson) who disappears after turning down her boyfriend’s proposal.
• Eclipsing Power: Musk, Bezos and the New Space Race (Sunday, 8/7c, CNN): A FlashDocs special examines the influence of billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and their SpaceX and Blue Origin companies in America’s space program as a new era of commercial space flight dawns.
• The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Roaring 20th (Sunday, 9/8c, Bravo): Seven franchise favorites — Orange County‘s Vicki Gunvalson, New York City‘s Luann de Lesseps, Atlanta‘s Porsha Williams, New Jersey‘s Teresa Giudice, Beverly Hills‘ Kyle Richards, Potomac‘s Gizelle Bryant, and Salt Lake City‘s Lisa Barlow — hit the road to live large on a nationwide trip through Orange County, Beverly Hills, Atlanta, Miami, and NYC.
• The Westies (Sunday, 9/8c, MGM+): Roarke (Tom Brittney) may have overreached when he takes a loan to make a cocaine deal with a well-heeled contact from downtown.
• Double Lives of Suburban Wives (Sunday, 10/9c, TLC): A reality series explores the underbelly of suburbia through six couples from the St. Louis area who’ve turned to creating “adult spicy content” online to make ends meet.
• Lioness (Sunday, streaming on Paramount+): After the thwarted home invasion, Joe’s (Zoe Saldaña) family prepares to be relocated, while higher-ups try to figure out how and by whom her cover was blown. In the six-months-later present, the team searches for Joe after her abduction.