THURSDAY’S BEST PICKS
8 PM * Station 19 The “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff opens Season 4 with “Nothing Seems the Same,” a title that, in part, refers to how these gallant first responders are trying to adjust to the challenging new reality of the COVID-19 pandemic, which complicates their efforts to render critical assistance to victims in a timely manner. Elsewhere, Andy (Jaina Lee Ortiz) is still reeling to learn her mother, long presumed dead, is alive. The episode also kicks off a heavily promoted three-hour crossover event with “Grey’s Anatomy,” which immediately follows.
8 PM G Supernatural The 15th and final season races closer to its (probably) apocalyptic conclusion in the penultimate episode “Inherit the Earth,” which finds virtually everything on the line — heaven, hell and the human world in between — as Sam and Dean (Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles) continue their high-stakes battle against God (guest star Rob Benedict). Meanwhile, a familiar face returns to join the fight.
9 PM & Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 22 reflects this police drama’s “ripped-from-the-headlines” style on two fronts, as Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and her team grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, which has sparked an uptick in domestic abuse as families shelter in their homes. Showrunner Warren Leight also says the writers plan to address the social and political fallout from the George Floyd murder. Watch for a guest appearance this season from Chris Meloni as Benson’s former partner Elliot Stabler, as a run-up to Meloni’s 2021 spinoff “Law & Order: Organized Crime.”
9 PM * Grey’s Anatomy Season 17 opens with a two-hour episode that picks up with a slight time jump from the end of Season 16, which had to shut down prematurely due to the coronavirus outbreak. As the action resumes, the pandemic has been raging for a couple of months, and the doctors already are taxed to their limits. The real-life crisis posed challenges off-screen as well, with new camera lenses used to make actors look as if they’re standing closer than they really are. Ellen Pompeo and Chandra Wilson return.
9PMG The Outpost In the new episode “Kill the Rat, Kill the Kinj,” Talon (Jessica Green) sets up a sanctuary to protect the infected, while Janzo and Wren (Anand Desai-Barochia, Izuka Hoyle) feverishly continue their research in hopes of finding a cure. Elsewhere, Garret (Jake Stormoen) tries to find out more about a deadly cult that performs human sacrifices. Reece Ritchie and Adam Johnson also star.
9 PM ( E!) Total Bellas WWE superstars Nikki and Brie Bella return for Season 6 of their unscripted series, which follows the sisters as they prepare for some milestones in their life, including the expansion of their families as they welcome baby boys. They also release their joint memoir, “Incomparable,” wherein Nikki opens up about a dark secret she kept from her family for more than 20 years.
Elsewhere, the family is shaken to discover matriarch Kathy requires emergency brain surgery, and Brie tries to reunite Nikki with their estranged brother, JJ.
9:30 PM $ The Unicorn Natalie Zea (“The Detour”) joins this sitcom on a recurring basis as it opens Season 2 with “There’s Something About Whoever-She-Was,” which sees Wade (Walton Goggins) running into an unfamiliar woman (Zea) in a parking lot. It’s only afterward that he realizes he felt an instant connection with this stranger. Meanwhile, MIchelle (Maya Lynne Robinson) anxiously waits to hear from the colleges she applied to, and Natalie (Makenzie Moss) tries to persuade her dad that she’s old enough to get her ears pierced.
10 PM $ Star Trek: Discovery Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and her crew find themselves stuck in a time loop after conman and smuggler Harry Mudd (guest star Rainn Wilson) manages to slip aboard the vessel in the new “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad.” Mudd’s scheme is to murder Lorca (Jason Isaacs) and sell the ship to the Klingons, but when his plot is foiled, he blows up the craft instead, triggering the time anomaly. Anthony Rapp and Doug Jones also star.
10 PM ( USA) Chrisley Knows Best The
show returns from hiatus with a batch of new Season 8 episodes, that will see Todd and Chase gearing up for a trip, while Nanny Faye, Todd’s free-wheeling mother, looks forward to embarking on a “sizzling seniors cruise.” Elsewhere, Grayson works hard to be the perfect son, and Savannah maps out her next personal and professional strategies. Meanwhile, Todd sets out to prove to wife Julie that he’s still
“got it” after 25 years of marriage.