Monday night’s all right for football
Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Monday, September 12. All times are Eastern.
Top picks
Monday Night Football (ESPN, 7/10:15 p.m.): Monday Night Football returns tonight, which means the fall television season is officially upon us. It also means Monday Night RAW is going to throw in the towel even more than usual, which you wouldn’t expect to be the case with ratings competitions, but… C’est la vie. (And c’est la vie, just for good measure.) The fun officially begins with Washington (at home) taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers. It then continues with the Los Angeles Rams (still so weird to say) taking on the San Francisco 49ers (at home). Can you smell that? That’s fall television on its way.
CBS Fall Special (CBS, 8:30 p.m.): Kevin Can Wait? Apparently not, as Kevin James will be hosting tonight’s “first look” of CBS’ new fall series. (And he’ll also be joined by his Kevin Can Wait co-star Erinn Hayes in one of the special’s segments.) Behind-the-scenes moments, Kevin James, cast interviews—CBS knows how to start the fall television season off right. See? We told you fall television is on its way.
JonBenét: An American Murder Mystery (Investigation Discovery, 10 p.m.): Then there’s this. A “special three-night event” that begins tonight, because JonBenét is the new O.J. Simpson, y’all. You know, like back in the ’90s. (The intense lack of Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding attention in all of this ’90s true-crime nostalgia has not gone unnoticed by your friendly neighborhood What’s On Tonight contributor, by the way.)
Premieres and finales
Dancing With The Stars (ABC, 8 p.m.): Monday Night Football means fall television, which in turn means Dancing With The Stars. A two-hour premiere of Dancing With The Stars’ 23rd (oh yes) season, in fact. You can see the cast list for all of the stars and “stars” here, but just make sure you know we’re supposed to be booing Ryan Lochte. Some of us have wanted to boo him since his reality show, but we were told we were “wrong” or “being too hard on a swimming dummy” because he was “hot.” But now it’s totally fine to boo Ryan Lochte (and even more so because he’ll be dancing to a Michael Bublé song), so your friendly neighborhood What’s On Tonight contributor is taking her shot. She’s not going to watch this, but you can pretend she is when you do. “Booooooo!” Jeah, or whatever.
Fashion Police (E!, 8 p.m.): Finally, Fashion Police tackles the event it had to have been created specifically for in the first place: New York Fashion Week.