The four-episode documentary “Gossip” (Showtime, 8 p.m.) is a moderately entertaining look at the rise of tabloid newspaper culture in New York City, despite being built on a number fo false assumptions — chief among them that gossip didn’t exist until the 1980s, or that being a New York gossip columnist was as powerful a position as mayor.
The subject here is Cindy Adams, who married a comedian twice her age, met his friends (Ronald Reagan), stumbled into journalism and got her reputation by interviewing people like the Shah of Iran, a personal friend, and Manuel Noriega. Donald Trump, she is proud to say, is a friend for 50 years. So a parade of undesirables march through the series, from Roy Cohn and Rupert Murdoch to Roger Stone, who should be in prison but is one of the interviewees. That the ungrammatical Adams is 90 now doesn’t exactly make her more sympathetic. In the second episode, she threatens death to Leona Helmsley and to the filmmaker.
Spike Lee’s “NYC Epicenters 9/11 to 2021 1/2” (HBO, 8 p.m.) is a four-part documentary series aboutNew York City’s challenges so far in the 21st century.
Whispering Adrien Brody and Emily Hampshire star in a 10-episode adaptation of Stephen King’s short story “Jerusalem’s Lot.” “Chapelwaite” (Epix, 10 p.m.) is set in 1850s Maine.
“The Walking Dead” (AMC, 9 p.m.) begins the first eight episodes of its final season (the other 16 come next year). But here comes the accompanying “Talking Dead” (AMC, 10 p.m.).
A second season comes for Abby McEnany’s underrated personal comedy “Work in Progress” (Showtime, 11 p.m.).