This sounds stupid but is possibly watchable: A dozen celebrities pretend they’re astronauts landing on Mars, where they receive assignments from William Shatner, safe at home on Mission Control. The cast of “Stars on Mars” (Fox, 8 p.m.) includes that one girl from “Modern Family,” that dude from “Superbad, that funny lady from a bunch of Comedy Central shows, a woman wrestler, and several others I can’t quite picture.
By name, they are Ariel Winter, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Natasha Leggero and Ronda Rousey as well as Tom Schwartz, Tallulah Willis, Tinashe, Richard Sherman and Adam Rippon. More than one mistakes Lance Armstrong for Neil Armstrong. It will be as interesting to hear them explain how they’re famous as it is to see them learn about aspects of the Red Planet.
It comes alongside the second season premiere of “Crime Scene Kitchen” (Fox, 9 p.m.), which involves detective work as well as culinary skills.
One of last summer’s sleeper surprises, “Cruel Summer” (Freeform, 9 and 10 p.m.) returns with a new story and new setting, involving a mysterious foreign exchange student in 1999.
The new imported summer series “The Rising” (CW, 8 p.m.) and “Barons” (CW, 9 p.m.) both present second episodes.
How to fill broadcast slots during the writers’ strike? Old movies — like the 2015 “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” (CBS, 8 p.m.) and a whole night of reruns of “Celebrity Family Feud” (ABC, 8, 9 and 10 p.m.).
There is a new episode of a game show, “Weakest Link” (NBC, 10 p.m.), but maybe not in Florida. It’s the “Drag Extravaganza!” Episode.