Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, June 20-26. Details and times are subject to change.
Monday
HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE (2012) 8 pm on TCM. Long before there were dependable treatment options for AIDS, activist groups including AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power and Treatment Action Group were hard at work trying to change the rhetoric surrounding the disease and pushing for solutions that could cut down on AIDS-related deaths. This documentary, directed by David France, uses archival footage from the 1980s to explore the rancor and apathy toward the disease during that period and how work by activist groups helped lead to robust treatments and a deeper understanding of the disease.
NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS (GAME THREE) 8 pm on ABC, The Tampa Bay Lightning, the two-time defending champions, will continue facing off against the Colorado Avalanche in Game 3 of the finals. The best-of-seven format means the team that wins four games first wins the cup. If the Lightning takes home that title, it will be the first team to win three consecutive championships since the New York Islanders won four straight cups in 1980-83.
Tuesday
WILD ‘N OUT 8 pm on VH1. The fate of this sketch-comedy and improv show was uncertain when ViacomCBS fired the show’s host and creator, Nick Cannon, in 2020 for making antisemitic remarks on a podcast — but the network hired him again last year. It is safe to assume that the new, 18th season, which debuts this week, will feature plenty of other faces: Previous guests on the show have included Chance the Rapper, Zendaya and Machine Gun Kelly.
CHERNOBYL: THE LOST TAPES (2022) 9 pm on HBO. In the 36 years since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, there has been a fascination with the incident in just about every form of media imaginable: Movies, video games, YouTube videos of people exploring the exclusion zone and now the recent fictionalized HBO mini-series. “The Lost Tapes” uses a trove of new archival footage to look at the explosion and its aftermath. It also includes interviews with survivors, who discuss what they knew about the nuclear power plant before the incident — and what they were told after.
Thursday
2022 NBA DRAFT 8 pm on ABC and ESPN. Some of the most promising young basketball players will assemble in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Thursday for the 76th annual NBA draft. A draft lottery in May determined that the Orlando Magic will have the first overall pick, with the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Houston Rockets and the Sacramento Kings rounding out the top four in the draft lottery. This is the first time in two years that the draft will take place at the normal time, in June, after pandemic-related postponements in 2020 and 2021.
BUCKHEAD SHORE 9 pm on MTV. Following in the infamous footsteps of “Jersey Shore,” “Floribama Shore” and “Geordie Shore,” this MTV reality show captures fights, hookups and nights out among a new cast of characters in Buckhead, Ga., where nine friends share a lake house for the summer.
AMERICAN ANTHEMS 10 pm on PBS (check local listings). The inspiration behind pieces of music can often be hard to pin down, but that won’t be the case here. In each episode of the six-part series, a country star meets with a local community “hero” and then turns his or her story into a personalized country song. The first episode will feature Jennifer Nettles. Other acts in the series include Lee Brice, the War and Treaty, Cam, Lindsay Ell, and Ruston Kelly.
49TH ANNUAL DAYTIME EMMY AWARDS 9 pm on CBS. This year’s Daytime Emmy Awards will be live from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in California. The show, which will be hosted by Kevin Frazier and Nischelle Turner, recognizes shows that air during the daytime. This year’s nominees include “General Hospital,” “The Young and the Restless,” and “The Bold and the Beautiful.” Beyoncé is a nominee in the outstanding original song category for her song she wrote for her mother’s Facebook Watch series “Talks With Mama Tina.” The PBS show “This Old House,” which earned its 100th nomination this year, will receive a lifetime achievement honor.
Saturday
THE HAUNTING (1963) 6 pm on TCM. This horror film, adapted from the Shirley Jackson novel “The Haunting of Hill House,” follows Dr. John Markway, a researcher interested in psychic phenomena. He encounters two women, Eleanor (Julie Harris) and Theodora (Claire Bloom), and uses their supernatural experiences in a haunted mansion to investigate his paranormal theories. For a looser, modernized take on the novel, see the much more recent adaptation “The Haunting of Hill House,” a series on Netflix.
Sunday
2022 BET AWARDS 8 pm on BET. Lizzo, Jack Harlow, Chance the Rapper and many more celebrities will be at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday night to perform at this year’s BET Awards. Taraji P. Henson will host. Nominees in the top categories include Doja Cat — who has six nominations, the most of any artist this year — and Drake and Ari Lennox, who each have four. Sean Combs is set to accept a lifetime achievement award.
CITIZEN ASHE 9 pm on CNN. This documentary on the tennis star Arthur Ashe, a three-time Grand Slam singles title winner who died in 1993, features Ashe’s brother, wife and friends. They discuss Ashe’s experience as a Black man in a white-dominated sport — his ascent to tennis stardom happened during the Jim Crow era — and his career in the context of the AIDS epidemic, South African apartheid and civil rights in the United States. In her review for The New York Times, Manohla Dargis called it an “engrossing, politically astute documentary portrait.”
