Still the most dependable ratings draw, the NFL season gets underway as the Kansas City Chiefs host the Detroit Lions (8:15 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
As the season opener, this is considered a “Sunday” game and broadcast on NBC. Starting next week, Thursday Night Football games will stream on Prime Video.
Every new season in the streaming era brings new wrinkles. In addition to Prime’s Thursday-night streams, games normally broadcast on CBS can also be streamed on Paramount+. “Sunday Night Football” can be streamed on Peacock Premium.
Perhaps the most ambitious (and expensive) NFL package is the NFL Ticket, available through YouTube. It offers viewers a menu of every out-of-market game for an annual fee of several hundred dollars. In that way, it’s not unlike the MLB app, which allows Major League Baseball fans to see every possible game except those featuring their home teams.
— A psychological thriller that unfolds with the logic and dark atmosphere of a Grimm’s fairy tale, the limited German series “Dear Child” streams on Netflix. Based on a novel by Romy Hausmann, “Child” involves Lena, held captive with other children in an isolated home where their every meal and bathroom break is highly regulated. After escaping, Lena is hospitalized and interviewed by police who believe she may be linked to a missing person case dating back some 14 years.
— Also streaming on Netflix, the romantic melodrama “Virgin River” enters its fifth season, with new characters and complications. The first 10 episodes of this season will stream today, with an additional two “holiday” installments arriving on Nov. 30.
— Set in London’s drug trade, the drama “Top Boy” streams its third and final season on Netflix.
— Viaplay, the streaming service for Scandinavian content, debuts the third season of the popular Norwegian series “Pernille.”
Henriette Steenstrup (“Ragnorak”) stars in the title role as a feisty middle-aged single mother dealing with three growing children, an aging father and a job at the local child services agency. Unfolding in 30-minute dollops, the show offers an unglamorized look at domestic chaos. Unafraid to confront her children and other children’s parents about their dubious choices, “Pernille” can seem like a Norwegian variation on “Roseanne” in its heyday.
The first two seasons are available on Viaplay as well.
— The star (Jim Carrey) of the world’s most popular TV distraction has no idea that his entire life has been staged in the 1998 drama/satire/sci-fi/psychological thriller “The Truman Show” (8:30 p.m., MTV2, TV-PG), directed by Peter Weir. It would be an understatement to call this a remarkably prescient movie, given that it appeared in theaters two years before “Survivor” ushered in the reality TV craze in 2000. Elements of the 2023 comedy “Jury Duty” are right out of “The Truman Show.”
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— U.S. Open Tennis Women’s semifinals (7 p.m., ESPN).
— Frustrated with her marriage, a woman is offered a cosmic do-over in the 2021 romance “Love Strikes Twice” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
CULT CHOICE
Steven Seagal plays a Navy SEAL in the 1992 thriller “Under Siege” (8:30 p.m., BBC America, TV-14), co-starring Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey as turncoats out to seize a battleship. Seagal, a martial artist turned actor, enjoyed success in the 1990s, followed by decades of direct-to-video action films.
In recent years, Seagal has embraced far-right politics in the United States and has endorsed authoritarian leaders abroad, including former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Seagal became a Russian citizen in 2016.
SERIES NOTES
A secret is blown on “Young Sheldon” (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14) … “I Can See Your Voice” (8 p.m., Fox, r, TV-PG) … “Generation Gap” (8 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG) … Alberta’s descendent is also a fan on “Ghosts” (8:30 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
A vote results in an eviction on “Big Brother” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) … “Name That Tune” (9 p.m., Fox, r, TV-PG) … “The Prank Panel” (9 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG).
“The Challenge: USA” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14) … Experts advise and invest on “Shark Tank” (10 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG).
LATE NIGHT
Due to the Writers Guild strike, all late-night shows are reruns.
Rose McIver and Bono sit down on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (11:35 p.m., CBS) … Jimmy Fallon welcomes Taylor Swift and Meghan Trainor on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Harrison Ford, “Science Bob” Pflugfelder, Wiz Khalifa, Ty Dolla $ign, Lil Yachty and Sueco the Child appear on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (11:35 p.m., ABC) … Jesse Eisenberg and Meghann Fahy visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC).
