MTV VMAs, CW’s ‘Swarm,’ Royal Return to Wrexham, Soccer and Soccer Docs

MTV Video Music Awards

Strike or no strike, the show must go on for MTV’s notoriously spontaneous Video Music Awards, live from New Jersey’s Prudential Center. Proceeding without a script, highlights include Sean “Diddy” Combs accepting the Global Icon Award and performing on the show for the first time since 2005, and Shakira receiving the Video Vanguard Award and making her first VMA performance since 2006. Marking the 50th anniversary of hip hop, show MC Nicki Minaj joins DMC, Doug E. Fresh, LL Cool J, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five for a special tribute. Other headliners include Olivia Rodrigo, Demi Lovato, Doja Cat, Kelsea Ballerini, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion reuniting for their new single “Bongos,” Måneskin and many more.

The Swarm

This international production, shown earlier this year in Europe, is reminiscent of Apple’s Invasion in its global scope—and its slow burn. Like Hitchcock’s The Birds, substituting marine life for avian, the thriller jumps from Peru to Vancouver Island to Scotland’s Shetland Islands to present lethal mysteries of the deep. While marine biologist Charlie (Leonie Benesch) investigates an unusual excess of methane ice near a Shetland outpost, Vancouver-based whale researcher Leon (Joshua Odjik) wonders about the late arrival of the mammoth mammals off their shores, and a dead beached orca raises even more questions. Something’s brewing under the surface, but what?

Welcome to Wrexham

“So the King of England called,” quips Ryan Reynolds, co-owner (with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Rob McElhenney) of the struggling Wrexham soccer club, the pride and bane of its small Welsh town. As the second season begins, King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla drop by the club—the celeb owners get some etiquette training just in case—but even with this royal glow, stakes are even higher for the team to improve its fortunes. Importing more top talent could help the club get promoted to a higher and more profitable league. The town and its businesses have enjoyed a surge in visibility, popularity and profitability since the TV show premiered last year, but if the Red Dragons can’t perform on the pitch, even Ryan and Rob concede the business will be unsustainable.

Football Must Go On

Wrexham has it easy compared to the Shakhtar Donetsk soccer club from Ukraine, determined to keep playing for their country and their fans even as war rages across their homeland. An inspirational four-part docuseries follows the team as it competes in the 2022-23 UEFA Champions League. They consider it their duty and mission to continue to play, even when conditions force them to relocate to Warsaw, Poland, where the stadium houses Ukrainian refugees.

INSIDE TUESDAY TV:

• The Crossover: 50 Years of Hip Hop and Sports (7:30 pm/ET, ESPN): Rapper Busta Rhymes narrates an hourlong special for E60 tracking the intersection of hip hop and sports over the last half-century.
• Beat Shazam (8/7c, Fox): Millennials square off against Boomers and Gen-Xers in the season finale of the musical game show, followed by the season finale at 9/8c of Don’t Forget the Lyrics!
• Inside the NFL (8/7c, The CW): At the studio series’ new broadcast home, replay highlights of Week 1 with exclusive footage and audio from NFL Films and commentary from a panel led by host Ryan Clark.
• The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi’s Schools (9/8c, PBS): In a deeply personal installment of American Experience, Pulitzer Prize-winner Douglas A. Blackmon reflects on his experience as part of the first racially integrated class of students attending all 12 grades together in Leland, Mississippi in the 1970s.
• Niiice Shot with Stephen Curry (9 pm/ET, Golf Channel): Over four episodes, the NBA great and golf aficionado attempts to recreate classic golf shots executed by Tiger Woods, Jordan Spietch and Rory McIlroy, who gives Curry pro tips on how to pull off the swing.
• Michelle Wolf: It’s Great to Be Here (streaming on Netflix): For laughs, the comedian riffs on a gender gap among serial killers and many of the gross things that men like in a new stand-up set.
• Only Murders in the Building (streaming on Hulu): In a change of pace, Arconia’s resident grouch Uma (the hilarious Jackie Hoffman) narrates the episode, which features several surprise celebrity cameos as director Oliver (Martin Short) desperately tries to save his show.