They’ve been playing big games for a month under the preseason moniker, but now it all starts in the typically overblown way: NFL season opener, network style.
The Ravens at Broncos (NBC, 8:30 p.m.) is such a big thing for the network, they’re presenting it under the inexact title of “Sunday Night Football.” Besides the regular hoopla on the field, there’s the NFL Kickoff (NBC, 7:30 p.m.) that includes a concert by Keith Urban in Baltimore. Hey isn’t he a singing judge on a rival network?
In face of football, other broadcasters pretty much give up, with a two hour “Wipeout” (ABC, 8 p.m.), featuring slightly fewer concussions, a “Rookie Blue” (ABC, 10 p.m.) and otherwise reruns.
The exception is “Big Brother” (CBS, 9 p.m.) in which bullying self-styled puppet-mater Amanda likely gets voted off. But there is less certainty about who else goes home tonight in the season’s second double elimination night, in which we see how quickly this game could go if they really wanted to do it that way.
The new series “The Customer is Always Right?” (OWN, 10 p.m.) comes with a question mark, so the idea is how to improve customer relations, starting with Mrs. Fields Cookies, already represented in Food Network’s “Supermarket Showdown.”
I wasn’t looking when the Braxtons spun off into their own series. Tonight, youngest sister Tamar Braxton begins season two of the reality show about her marriage to Vince Herbert, “Tamar & Vince” (WE tv, 10 p.m.).
The latest Thursday night B-movie from Syfy doesn’t have sharks in the title or anything else, really, to indicate that it is a movie about mutant alligators on the bayou. Instead, “Ragin’ Cajun Redneck Gators” (Syfy, 9 p.m.) sounds more like just another iteration of “Gator Boys” (Animal Planet, 8 p.m.) or “Call of the Wildman” (Animal Planet, 9 p.m.). It would be better if they had sharks in the bayou, as they did two years ago in “Swamp Shark” (Syfy, 7 p.m.).
A movie that sounds more like a Syfy B-movie hybrid, ironically, is actually a classier spy flick from 1983: “Octopussy” (Encore, 8 p.m.).
A new case at the midpoint of this batch of “Luther” (BBC America, 10 p.m.) involves a vigilante, whose spree comes during the continuing investigation of John Luther.
Fair notice: It’s the second to last ever “Burn Notice” (USA, 9 p.m.).
The task this week on “Project Runway” (Lifetime, 9 p.m.) is designing athletic wear for Heidi Klum’s line. Michael Kors returns as guest judge.
Rather than move it over to FXX during a season, “Wilfred” (FX, 10 p.m.) is allowed to finish its season on its original network.
Daytime Talk
Kelly & Michael: Arsenio Hall, Jennifer Hudson, Ariana Grande. The View: Teri Hatcher, Dean Norris, Michael Franti, Lara Spencer. Ellen DeGeneres: Taylor Swift (rerun). Wendy Williams: Kerry Washington, David Alan Grier (rerun).
Late Talk
David Letterman: Queen Latifah, Jake Johnson, TV on the Radio. Jay Leno: Vince Vaughn, Olivia Munn, Vintage Trouble. Jimmy Kimel: Jane Lynch, Jerry O’Connell, 2 Chainz. Jimmy Fallon: Steve Buscemi, Bethenny Frankel, Daniel Humm. Craig Ferguson: Vin Diesel, Sara Gilbert. Carson Daly Zack Snyder, Grimes (rerun). Tavis Smiley: Earth, Wind & Fire. Jon Stewart: Michael C. Hall. Stephen Colbert: John Prine. W. Kamau Bell: Tracy Morgan. Conan O’Brien: Carl Reiner, Cheryl Hines, Delta Rae. Chelsea Handler: Ross Mathews, John Caparulo, Catherine Reitman, Matt Braunger.