The staff of medical comedy St. Denis Medical reacts about as well as you’d expect to mixed reviews on Yelp. While the bizarre community of Paradise celebrates with a carnival, one Secret Service agent begins to distrust another. New Amsterdam’s Jocko Sims guest-stars on High Potential as an FBI agent who was once the partner of Detective Karadec. The dupe at the core of the fake reality show The Joe Schmo Show calls bogus after a particularly outrageous stunt.
Ron Batzdorff / NBC
St. Denis Medical
Hospital reviews on Yelp? “There’s everything reviews on everywhere,” sighs St. Denis administrator Joyce (Wendi McLendon-Covey), who characteristically overreacts to online naysayers — including a patient who targets ER doc Ron (David Alan Grier) for his brusque bedside manner. Can she get the prickly physician to apologize? Also unnerved: supervising nurse Alex (Allison Tolman), insisting that a Yelp review must be referring to another nurse named Alex who’s described as being “snippy.”
Disney / Brian Roedel
Paradise
The first three episodes of the political/doomsday thriller gave viewers plenty to process, and the intrigue continues to build as more dark corners of the idyllic community emerge when plans proceed for a carnival on the day before President Cal Bradford’s (James Marsters) funeral. For Secret Service Agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown), suspicion begins to fall on his fellow agent Billy Pace (Jon Beavers) — or beloved “Uncle Billy,” to Xavier’s kids — whose unsavory past and relationship to the powerful Sam “Sinatra” Redmond (Julianne Nicholson) becomes clearer.
Disney / Mitch Hasseth
High Potential
A turf war between the LAPD and the FBI breaks out over the mystery dramedy’s latest case, involving the fatal poisoning of a tech mogul notorious for his controversial deepfake software. Adding to the tension: Det. Karadec’s (Daniel Sunjata) uneasy reunion with his former partner, Ronnie Oliver (New Amsterdam’s Jocko Sims), now a condescending FBI agent. As most people are when they first meet Morgan (Kaitlin Olson), Ronnie is especially skeptical of the savant consultant, who tends to rely on her own data, “called gut instinct.” While tackling the case, Morgan leans more than usual on her ex, Ludo (Taran Killam), to tend to their family, which leads to a crisis and some sweet scenes between Morgan and Ludo and their brainiac kid, Elliot (Matthew Lamb).
TBS
The Joe Schmo Show
Words you never want to hear from the dupe on your faked reality show: “This is all a big prank on me, right?” That’s the reaction from Ben, the only participant who’s not an actor following a script, when one of his fellow (but fake) contestants performs an outrageous stunt involving a wood chipper that not only feels staged, it was staged. “How are we going to continue at this point?” says the actor involved in the debacle. Host Cat Deeley admits that in all of her years doing TV, “I’ve never seen anything like it” as the producers behind the scenes try to get the show-within-a-show back on track.
Jim Rogash / Getty Images
Brady vs. Belichick: The Verdict
The great debate reaches its final chapter when a platoon of experts weighs in on the big question: Who was more responsible for the New England Patriots’ 2001-2019 dynasty, coach Bill Belichick (now a college coach for UNC) or star quarterback Tom Brady (who’ll be doing color commentary for Sunday’s Super Bowl on Fox)? Over the last two weeks, arguments were made on Brady’s and Belichick’s behalf, and in the finale, hosted by Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo, the verdict will be revealed. You’ll hear from many former Patriots, including Rob Gronkowski, and broadcasters and journalists including Bob Costas, Mike Greenberg, Peter King and Gary Myers, author of Brady vs. Belichick: The Dynasty Debate.
INSIDE TUESDAY TV:
- FBI (8/7c, CBS): Jubal’s (Jeremy Sisto) confidential informant has news of an impending terror attack, but which details in his intel are true and which aren’t? Followed by FBI: International (9/8c), where the Fly Team protects the daughter of an assassinated Russian biochemist with the key to top secret biotoxins research; and FBI: Most Wanted (10/9c), with the Fugitive Task Force seeking killers competing in a nasty online game.
- Will Trent (8/7c, ABC): Retired police captain Evelyn Mitchell (LisaGay Hamilton) is back in town, complicating daughter Faith’s (Iantha Richardson) life during the investigation of a precious stolen coin.
- Finding Your Roots (8/7c, PBS): Henry Louis Gates, Jr. cooks up some fascinating family histories while exploring the heritage of celebrity chefs José Andrés and Sean Sherman.
- Doc (9/8c, Fox): Dr. Amy’s (Molly Parker) forgotten past continues to haunt her when she’s paired with resentful third-year resident Sonya (Anya Banerjee) on an emotional case involving brothers facing a bone marrow transplant.
- The Irrational (10/9c): Bess Armstrong guest-stars as Renee Franklin, who asks Alec (Jesse L. Martin) for help after she dreams about an actual murder whose victim was her heart-transplant donor.
- True Crime Watch: Hulu’s three-part docuseries Wicked Game: The Devil in the Desert chronicles the crimes of Hossein Nayeri, who escaped from prison while awaiting trial for the kidnapping and mutilation of a marijuana dispensary owner in 2012. Another three-part true-crime docuseries, Burden of Guilt on Paramount+, follows Tracyraquel Berns’ search for answers about the sudden death of her 4-month-old baby brother Matthew when she was just 2 years old.