It’s not even June. Many are still in school. But the silly season has begun in earnest. Summer has often been associated with athletic game shows straight out of summer camp, or preschool. For years, ABC aired “Wipeout,” a summer TV obstacle course complete with chances to experience an unexpected plunge.
Now Fox introduces “The Quiz With Balls” (9 p.m., TV-PG). Whether you consider the title clever, vulgar or obvious, all the connotations of the final word in the title are exhausted within five minutes. Get ready to hear the phrase “brains vs. balls” run into the ground. Repeatedly.
Each episode pits one family against another in a quiz contest. The set resembles a large pinball game. Players answer questions in front of a large swimming pool. Answer correctly, and your score increases. Provide an incorrect answer, and you risk the descent of a giant sphere, roughly half the size of a small sedan, large enough to topple players into the water and out of the game.
As stunts go, this is both amusing and physically brutal. Grandmothers get dunked. Watching one player get rolled over is certainly memorable. But “Balls” has the potential to get repetitive and tiresome — before the first commercial break.
But don’t ask me. I thought “The Masked Singer” was too juvenile to endure.
Jay Pharoah (“SNL”) hosts. Help yourself.
— Another sign of summer, “America’s Got Talent” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) enters its 19th season. Look for host Terry Crews and judges Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum, Sofia Vergara and Howie Mandel to return. At the time of its debut in 2006, NBC was still airing “Heroes,” “30 Rock” and “The Biggest Loser.” Of course, it aired “Law & Order” and “SVU” as well, so some things haven’t changed a bit.
— “Frontline” (10 p.m., PBS, check local listings) presents “Netanyahu, America & the Road to War in Gaza.” While “Frontline” is uniquely equipped to cover the story, having documented Netanyahu and his many governments since the 1990s, the current situation in the region may be too fast-moving for a reflective news magazine to digest.
When first announced last week, this show was supposed to bring us up to the news about the Israeli government’s widening tensions with Washington and the recent decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to charge both Netanyahu and Hamas with war crimes. But in the days since, several European governments, including Norway, Ireland and Spain, have recognized Palestine as an independent state, furthering Israel’s diplomatic isolation and complicating efforts of the Biden administration to broker a ceasefire.
Events are moving so quickly that the war in Gaza could probably inspire a daily or nightly series. That’s hardly unprecedented. After Iranian students took American embassy personnel hostage in 1979, ABC News president Roone Arledge saw continuing coverage as a relatively cheap way for his network to offer viewers an alternative to “The Tonight Show.” Thus “Nightline,” first hosted by Ted Koppel, was born.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— Intrepid agents on “FBI” (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
— Jamie Foxx returns to host the seventh season of “Beat Shazam” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG). An Oscar winner for the 2004 biopic “Ray,” Foxx returns to “Beat” after various medical complications kept him sidelined over the past year.
— A single mother huddles with an NFL star in the 2023 romance “Fourth Down and Love” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
— A former agent is found in a gruesome Libyan facility on “FBI: International” (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
— A woman’s body is found after a brutal murder in a Brooklyn hotel room on “FBI: Most Wanted” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
Fickle gods, including Honor Blackman (“Goldfinger”) as Hera, intervene from Mt. Olympus as an adventurer (Todd Armstrong) seeks the Golden Fleece in the 1963 mythic thriller “Jason and the Argonauts” (8 p.m., TCM, TV-PG). Special effects by stop-motion master Ray Harryhausen, including a sword fight between skeletons, set a new standard. “Jason” stood out among the cheap “sword & sandal” imports of the period and remains a beloved classic, appealing to 10-year-olds of all ages.
SERIES NOTES
“Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” (8 p.m., ABC, r, TV-14) … “Celebrity Jeopardy!” (9 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG) … “Password” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) … “The $100,000 Pyramid” (10 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG)
LATE NIGHT
Jimmy Fallon welcomes Winston Duke and Doja Cat on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC, r) … Joel Edgerton, Lily Gladstone and Cole Escola visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC, r) … Taylor Tomlinson hosts “After Midnight” (12:35 a.m., CBS).
