HOLLYWOOD (CNS) - The 2020-21 prime-time television season begins tonight, with Fox and CBS both airing programming that originally aired elsewhere to fill the gap left by the unavailability of new scripted episodes as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Fox's fall schedule includes two such series, including the crime drama “L.A.'s Finest,'' which originally aired on the Spectrum Originals service for Spectrum cable subscribers. The show, which debuts on the network at 8 p.m., stars Gabrielle Union as Drug Enforcement Administration agent Syd Burnett, who transfers to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Union originally played the character in the 2003 film “Bad Boys II.''
“Filthy Rich,'' a southern Gothic family soap opera about a mega-rich Southern family famed for creating a wildly successful Christian television network, follows at 9 p.m. on Fox.
When the family patriarch (Gerald McRaney) is killed in a plane crash, his wife (Kim Cattrall) and family are stunned to learn that he fathered three children outside of his marriage, all of whom are written into his will, threatening the family name and fortune.
Fox announced last fall that “Filthy Rich'' would premiere at midseason, but never did. It has completed production on its first season.
“Cosmos: Possible Worlds,'' will make its Fox debut Tuesday with back-to-back episodes from 8-10 p.m. The space documentary aired on cable's National Geographic channel March 9-April 20.
Another Spectrum Originals series, “Manhunt: Deadly Games,'' about the search for the Centennial Olympic Park bomber, will also make its broadcast debut tonight, airing at 10 p.m. on CBS.
CBS will air the first season of the CBS All Access science fiction series “Star Trek: Discovery'' beginning Thursday and the fourth season of the Pop comedy “One Day at a Time'' starting Oct. 12.
CBS will air six films from the Paramount Pictures library on Sunday nights, beginning Oct. 4 with the 2003 comedy “Old School,'' starring three men (Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell) reliving their carefree college years.
CBS and Paramount Pictures are both units of the global media and entertainment company ViacomCBS.
Instead of the season premiere of the singing competition “The Voice'' as it did to begin the 2019-20 season, NBC will air an episode of the competition series “American Ninja Warrior'' from 8-10 p.m. on the opening night of the prime-time television season.
“The Voice'' is scheduled to begin its fall season Oct. 19.
ABC will broadcast a “Monday Night Football'' game tonight for the first time since Dec. 26, 2005, to mark both the Las Vegas Raiders' first game in their new city and the 50th anniversary of the first “Monday Night Football'' game, a 31-21 victory by the Cleveland Browns over the New York Jets on Sept. 21, 1970.
The broadcast will be a simulcast of the ESPN broadcast. The game's broadcast on ABC was announced May 7 as part of the release of the 2020 NFL schedule.