USA Network
Scare Tactics
Jordan Peele (Get Out) is among the executive producers reviving the hidden-camera prank show (formerly a Syfy exclusive) that convinces unsuspecting targets that they’re living out an actual horror-movie scenario. Now hosted by a TV set-wearing jokester named Flip, the show opens with a dupe coerced to witness a bizarre wedding where the very pregnant bride is about to deliver a horrific surprise. The second segment tricks another pawn into sampling a gourmet tasting menu that just might include human flesh. Are you laughing yet?
HGTV
Scariest House in America
Having spent several seasons checking out candidates for the title of Ugliest House in America, the comedian Retta (Parks and Recreation) is now touring and making snarky comments about some of the nation’s creepiest properties. Each week, the house deemed the scariest will get a $150,000 renovation by designer Alison Victoria. In the opener, Retta nervously enters a former jail overrun by bats, a custom home featuring death traps and a house whose kitchen is dominated by a giant well. Pro tip for Retta: Don’t go in the basement alone!
Netflix
It’s What’s Inside
Fear the Walking Dead’s Alycia Debnam-Carey reunites with executive producer Colman Domingo in writer-director Greg Jardin’s psychological thriller about a group of friends (including The White Lotus alum Brittany O’Grady) whose pre-wedding party takes a turn when they agree to participate in a parlor game that involves attaching electrodes to their head. What happens next is a trippy and hallucinatory head game with existential consequences.
Shudder
V/H/S/Beyond
The grisly found-footage horror anthology returns for a seventh installment, with six newly discovered tapes pushing the franchise into what’s described as a “sci-fi inspired hellscape.” Directors include Haunting franchise regular Kate Siegel and Justin Long (Barbarian) with brother Christian Long.
Starz
Power Book II: Ghost
Find out who makes it out alive when the first of the Power spinoffs, focusing on “Ghost’s” son Tariq (Michael Rainey Jr.) and his dealings with the Tejada drug cartel led by Monet (Mary J. Blige), reaches its series finale. Followed by the premiere of Fat Joe Talks (9/8c), a weekly interview series starring the pioneering rapper. His first guest is Power Book II: Ghost star and fellow rapper Method Man, discussing his role of attorney Davis MacLean and the legacy of Wu-Tang Clan while touring his Staten Island hometown.
The Roku Channel
The Charlie Puth Show
Musician Charlie Puth mocks his own celebrity and the cultural zeitgeist in a six-part reality-TV spoof in which he attempts to reinvent himself with the help of an entourage that includes a fake momager and fawning assistants. His comedic voyage of self-discovery features celebrity cameos including Will Ferrell and Courteney Cox.
INSIDE FRIDAY TV:
- Good Times (6 pm/5c, 3 pm/PT, Catchy Comedy Network): The tribute to John Amos, who passed away in August at 84, continues with two episodes of the Norman Lear sitcom classic: 1975’s “The Weekend” and “The Family Tree.”
- True Crime Watch: ABC’s 20/20 (9/8c) explores the 1986 murder of L.A. nursing director Sherri Rasmussen, which went unsolved until 2009, when DNA evidence implicated LAPD Detective Stephanie Lazarus, who once dated the victim’s husband. Sentenced to 27 years to life in 2012, Lazarus is now up for early-release parole under California’s “youthful offender” law. On Dateline NBC (9/8c), John Mankiewicz reports on two seemingly unrelated murders in Los Angeles that investigators believe may be connected.
- Tia Mowry: My Next Act (9:30/8:30c, We TV): The sitcom and reality-TV star returns with a reality series depicting her adjustment to life after divorce.
- Three Women (10/9c, Starz): This week’s subject is Maggie (a compelling Gabrielle Creevy), a young woman in North Dakota who decides to go public about the inappropriate relationship she had in high school with her charismatic English teacher (Jason Ralph).
- Mambo Legends: The Music Never Ends (10/9c, PBS): Voces presents a profile of the Mambo Legends Orchestra, dedicated to preserving the musical legacies of Afro Cuban bandleaders Tito Puente, Machito and Tito Rodriguez.
- The Graham Norton Show (11/10c, BBC America): A new season of the free-wheeling talk show opens with guests including Demi Moore, Lady Gaga, Colin Farrell, and Krapopolis star Richard Ayoade.
ON THE STREAM:
- Face Off: Inside the NHL (streaming on Prime Video): An immersive docuseries goes behind the scenes with pro hockey’s top teams and players as they battle their way to the Stanley Cup.
- RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All Stars (streaming on Paramount+): RuPaul quizzes the remaining international queens about who’s the shadiest, messiest and bossiest. Then they participate in a drag family makeover. Drag Race alum Raven and Dianne Brill from Drag Race Germany join the judging panel.
- They Came at Night: Y Llegaron de Noche (streaming on ViX): Acapulco’s Eugenio Derbez stars in a Spanish-language workplace comedy series about the making of the Spanish version of 1931’s Dracula, filmed simultaneously with the Bela Lugosi classic. Seinfeld’s Jason Alexander co-stars as Universal Studios chief Carl Laemmle.
- Pachinko (streaming on Apple TV+): In Season 2’s emotional penultimate episode of the historical drama, Sunja (Kim Min-ha) sends her beloved older son Noa (Kang Tae Joo) to college while Mr. Kim (Kim Sung-kyu) is torn between his homeland and the woman he secretly loves.
- La Maison (streaming on Apple TV+): The addictive French-language fashion drama stages the first show at the LEDU house for progressive usurper Paloma (Zita Hanrot)—“It’s like a Christo fashioned out of trash,” snarks a rival—while ousted designer Vincent (Lambert Wilson) stews in exile on his private island. Also very much in fashion: betrayals between the warring families.