What's On Tonight (Sunday): Baptiste, not Batiste

Baptiste

Boar on the floor! Here's what's on television for tonight, Sunday, October 17!

Tonight's Top Pick is the British import Baptiste (PBS, 10 p.m.), completely unrelated to the music performer of last night's Top Pick, also of PBS. For the drama's second and final season, the retired French detective Julien Baptiste (Tchéky Karyo) must unravel a kidnapping case involving Fiona Shaw's family. The first season was about Tom Hollander's missing niece girlfriend sorta-ex-girlfriend and ventured into the underworld of drugs and human trafficking. I thought it was great. (It's also a spinoff of The Missing.)

Elsewhere, HBO serves us new morsels of rich white people problems, Robert Gates sits down for 60 Minutes, detectives are searching for an Equalizer, Starz journeys back to Hightown, Bob and Teddy go on a road trip, Chapelwaite has a scary night, Lacey Chabert spins the Wheel, Lisa Ling tackles big tech and misinformation, and Teenage Euthanasia euthanizes season one.

(All times are Eastern. All listings are new unless otherwise stated. For more listings, visit The Futon Critic or Zap2it.)

DAYSIDE ON THE SITE

🤔 Thoughts On: The Women of 1988 (8 a.m.): Moonlighting✔️

STREAMING & EARLY PRIMETIME

60 Minutes (CBS, 7:30 p.m.): Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates... the longest running cattle drive in America... the future of English pubs.

🎥 Calling for Love (UPtv, 7 p.m.): This sounds like a Frasier spinoff about another radio host at KACL.

Fear the Walking Dead (Paramount+, 3 a.m.): As Morgan, Grace and Mo struggle to adapt to life on the submarine, a food shortage forces them to face the nuclear fallout outside the sub.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond (AMC+, 3 a.m.): "Family Is a Four Letter Word." Uhh, do you want to tell them?

INTERNATIONAL NOTICES: 

Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha (Netflix, 10 a.m., season finale): South Korea

Japan Sinks (Netflix, 11 p.m.): Japan, episode 2

BRIEFLY: America's Funniest Home Videos (ABC, 7 p.m.); Axios (HBO, 6 p.m.); The Men Who Stole the World Cup (Discovery+, 3 a.m., special); Naked & Afraid of Love (Discovery+, 3 a.m.); Snapped (Oxygen, 6 p.m.)

Moonlighting

🕗 8 P.M. EASTERN / 🕖 7 P.M. CENTRAL

BMF (Starz, 8 p.m.): Lamar's reign of terror continues, as he works overtime to shut down The 50 Boyz for good.

Call the Midwife (PBS, 8 p.m.): Sister Hilda and Dr. Turner are involved with a young woman whose health presents a series of challenges. A complicated pregnancy leads the Nonnatus team on a path of discovery.

Chesapeake Shores (Hallmark Channel, 8 p.m.): SEASON FINALE. Connor comes to Luke's defense despite personal risks. Abby faces a romantic dilemma. Jay wants more than friendship.

The Equalizer (CBS, 8:30 p.m.): McCall is in the crosshairs of a foreign government's intelligence agency after a diplomat's daughter seeks her help to find her missing brother. Dante faces suspicion from a fellow detective tasked to find the vigilante known as [*cue '80s theme music*]: The Equalizer.✔️

🎥 The Fight That Never Ends (Lifetime, 8 p.m.): A man and a woman fight hatred and oppression as they work together to run a community helpline in South Central Los Angeles.

The Great North (Fox, 8:30 p.m.): After Delmer suffers a concussion while eating soup, the Tobins tell their favorite stories about him in order to keep him awake and alive.

The Simpsons (Fox, 8 p.m.): Evergreen Terrace is overrun with traffic, and Moe must make a difficult decision.

Zombies: Addison's Monster Mystery (Disney Channel, 8 p.m.): Will this episode air? This short form animated show is in its second season. This episode would air during a broadcast of Zombies 2.

NOTICES:

💲 Celebrity Wheel of Fortune (ABC): Melissa Joan Hart, Tituss Burgess, Lacey Chabert

BRIEFLY: 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way (TLC); The Circus (Showtime); Legends of the Hidden Temple (The CW); The Real Housewives of Potomac (Bravo); Rock My Collection (AXS TV, season finale)

The Equalizer (via Giphy)

🕘 9 P.M. EASTERN / 🕗 8 P.M. CENTRAL

Bob's Burgers (Fox, 9 p.m.): Bob gets roped into a road trip with Teddy. Meanwhile, Linda and the kids compete for the title of employee of the day.

Chapelwaite (Epix, 9 p.m.): Spooks! Charles and his family defend Chapelwaite with the help of Constable Dennison and Minister Burroughs. The night tests each character to their emotional limit.

Family Guy (Fox, 9:30 p.m.): Impelled by nostalgia, Peter re-creates movie scenes from his favorite decade. Stewie and Doug compete to retrieve a Frisbee stuck at the top of the jungle gym.

Fear the Walking Dead (AMC, 9 p.m.): Season premiere. While most of the landscape is destroyed by nuclear warheads, Strand thrives in one of the few inhabitable places left.

Grantchester (PBS, 9 p.m.): Will and Geordie are drawn into local politics when a councilor's death prompts a parish election.

Hightown (Starz, 9 p.m.): SEASON PREMIERE. Time for some Monica Raymund in our lives again. Jackie is out to prove herself as a cop and avenge the death of her best friend, Junior. Meanwhile, Frankie teams up with his cousin, and there's a new deadly drug in town called Great White.✔️

Mysterious Creatures with Forrest Galante (Animal Planet, 9 p.m.): Some guy named Forrest Galante goes searching for, um, mysterious creatures.

NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS, 9:30 p.m.): "NCIS takes the case personally when an LAPD officer's father, a beloved elderly Japanese American veteran, is the victim of a vicious hate crime." Even CBS' synopsis states that NCIS-ers takes the case personally. Personally!

Signed, Sealed, Delivered (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, 9 p.m.): "A couple wishes to start a family while another couple helps a lost boy reunite with a friend."

Succession (HBO, 9 p.m.): SEASON PREMIERE. Following his bombshell press conference, Kendall scrambles to find a base of operations while Logan's team searches for safe harbor. I'm looking forward the theme song and title sequence.✔️

NOTICES:

The Engineering That Built the World (History): Statue of Liberty

BRIEFLY: Diana (CNN); Evil Lives Here (Investigation Discovery, season finale); Homestead Rescue (Discovery Channel, season premiere); Killer Camp (The CW); Killers of the Cosmos (Science, season finale); 💲 Supermarket Sweep (ABC)

Hightown (via Tumblr)

🕙 10 P.M. EASTERN / 🕘 9 P.M. CENTRAL

American Rust (Showtime, 10 p.m.): Alejandro learns of Lee's history with Billy. Isaac turns his first trick solo. Harris travels back to Pittsburgh with his old partner to repay a debt.

⭐ Baptiste (PBS, 10 p.m.): SEASON PREMIERE. Julien Baptiste (Tchéky Karyo) travels to Hungary to help British ambassador Emma Chambers (Fiona Shaw) find her missing family. I swore I'd watch season two of The Missing before this new season arrived. Oops.

Fiasco (Epix, 10 p.m.): Two bizarre events, one in Iran and the other in Nicaragua, spark a frenzy among the press and public. Behind the scenes, Reagan's team debates how best to respond.

The Rookie (ABC, 10 p.m.): Officers Nolan and Chen search for a missing person who may have international ties, putting everyone's lives in danger.

SEAL Team (CBS, 10:30 p.m.): When Bravo's operation is compromised, they must figure out how to escape undetected from one of the most dangerous countries in the world.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond (AMC, 10 p.m.): An attempted grift leads to a precarious situation. Huck is given an ultimatum as she readjusts to her old life.

NOTICES:

This Is Life with Lisa Ling (CNN): Misinformation

Uncensored (TV One): Raven-Symone

Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen (Bravo): Jennie Nguyen, Wendy Osefo

BRIEFLY: I Love a Mama's Boy (TLC); Murder Nation (HLN); The Osbournes Want to Believe (Travel Channel); Outrageous Pumpkins (Food Network); Storms Rising (National Geographic)

💤💤😴💤💤

📺 The Fugitive (MeTV, 2 a.m.): "Dr. Kimble, now working as a janitor, lands in hot water when a troubled young man commits a horrible crime that leaves a trail."

📺 Mission: Impossible (MeTV, 3 a.m.): The third and final part to "The Falcon." Paris' cover is blown, and Sabattini has taken Jim to the imprisoned Stephan. A hidden Barney has placed a hidden projector screen in Stephan's cell while Jim has a projector in his briefcase. Reminder, the Old Country called this lengthy three-parter "the last hurrah for the show's globe-hopping, dictator-defying, richly cinematic era. It's also a tour de force for Leonard Nimoy," who plays Paris. The arc is "nowhere near as focused as a typical episode, but it's no less energetic" because the plot is used "as a hook to string together one super-cool IMF ploy and nail-biting crisis after another—like an epic anthology of the show's greatest hits." Also, Lee Meriwether.

Teenage Euthanasia (Adult Swim, midnight): SEASON FINALE. "Dada M.I.A."

NOTICES:

Desus & Mero (Showtime, 11 p.m.): Nas

BRIEFLY: 90 Day Pillow Talk: The Other Way (TLC, 11 p.m.); Talking Dead (AMC, 11 p.m.)

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Key Sources: The Futon Critic; IMDb; J-Archive; TV Passport; Zap2it
⭐: Top Pick
💲: Game show
🎥: Movie
📺: Throwback

✔️: Video/gif/photo included

Happy watching, everyone! Now:

Succession