“An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) offers conversations with leading medical experts about the impact of prescription medications that have grown in use over the past five years.
Oprah specials are always notable and occasionally interesting because she “investigates” with a touch of advocacy and because the former talk-show host has developed the aura of a prophet around her. Outside the very profitable realm of religious broadcasting, Winfrey stands nearly alone in the secular media as someone who acknowledges the spiritual hunger of her audience.
That is why both her supporters and critics see her as a kind of leader or symbol of a vein of contemporary American religious experience. She speaks to those who seek spirituality outside the confines of traditional churches and pews. At a time when church attendance is declining and “nones” begin to equal and outnumber believers on census forms, her influence is considerable.
“Weight Loss Revolution” may seek to offer the medical/pharmaceutical blessing to popular drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, but the real questions transcend the clinical.
If these prescribed peptides can mimic the sensation of “fullness” in the pursuit of eating less and losing weight, do they take the place of individual choice? The notion of individual desire has long been associated with concepts of sin and shame. At the same time, the Jeffersonian notion of “the pursuit of happiness” has been used to describe the very essence of liberty — and perhaps personhood itself.
If you need a pill to regulate cravings, are you somebody who just can’t help themselves? If you take the pill, you might get thinner, but are you still “you”?
The very title of her special acknowledges that these questions run very deep in our collective thinking.
— The new series “Photographer” (8 p.m., and 9 p.m., National Geographic, TV-PG) offers six hour-long profiles of visual storytellers as they use their cameras to capture nature at its most intimate, war at its most beautiful and “unseen” people at the margins of society.
Produced by award-winning filmmakers E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, the series’ subjects include Cristina Mittermeier and Paul Nicklen, Dan Winters, Campbell Addy, Krystle Wright, Muhammed Muheisen and Anand Varma.
In following these professionals and celebrating their work, “Photographer” makes the emphatic case that in a world of smartphone-wielding amateurs, there is still a place for the artfully composed, professionally staged and deeply saturated colors of such images.
It also brings the National Geographic channel back to its roots as a magazine, a perfect-bound yellow keepsake that many of our parents and grandparents subscribed to and archived. Why? For “the pictures.”
Starting tomorrow, viewers can stream “Photographer” on Hulu and Disney+.
— Peacock streams “Stormy,” a documentary about the life of Stormy Daniels, a woman at the center of several legal and media hurricanes.
— Now streaming on Black Public Media’s YouTube channel, the AfroPop digital short series presents “For the Moon,” a profile of Ronald McNair, who became enraptured by the idea of space travel as a 9-year-old in still-segregated South Carolina. He fulfilled his dream of becoming an American astronaut and was among the crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger, killed on Jan. 28, 1986.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
– The battle rounds commence on “The Voice” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).
— A designer’s work wows a publisher in the 2022 distraction “Romance in Style” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
— The team glances back and recalls Ducky (David McCallum) “NCIS” (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14)
— A crashed prison plane frees female fugitives on “NCIS: Hawai’i” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
— The “POV” (10 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) documentary “Unseen” follows a college-educated social worker navigating the uncertainty of undocumented status.
CULT CHOICE
A 19th-century safari guide (Cornel Wilde) finds the tables turned when he becomes the “The Naked Prey” (9:45 p.m., TCM) pursued by 10 African warriors in the 1966 thriller, written, co-produced and directed by its star.
SERIES NOTES
“The Price Is Right at Night” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) … “MasterChef” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) … “So You Think You Can Dance” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-14) … “The Bachelor” (9 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) … “Deal or No Deal Island” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).
LATE NIGHT
Jimmy Fallon welcomes Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Robinson and The Black Crowes on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … James McAvoy, Rachel Dratch and Morgan Rose visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC, r) … Taylor Tomlinson hosts “After Midnight” (12:35 a.m., CBS).
