What’s on TV This Week: ‘Catfish’ and ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ (2024)

For those like me who still haven’t cut the cord, here is a selection of cable and network TV shows, movies and specials that broadcast this week, April 29-May 5. Details and times are subject to change.

Monday

ERIN BROCKOVICH (2000) 8 p.m. on Pop. Anyone growing up with dreams of saving the world can probably find inspiration in Julia Roberts’s performance as Erin Brockovich. She is a single mom down to her last few dollars, but she’s smart and resourceful and possesses highly developed investigative Spidey senses. Based on a true story, this fictionalized movie follows Brockovich as she gets a low-level job at a law firm and finds a cover-up of toxic exposure that is threatening lives. A.O. Scott, in his review for The New York Times noted that after a robust, creative opening, Roberts and the director, Steven Soderbergh, rely heavily on clichés, and Scott ruefully submits to the same technique, writing that the movie “will make you laugh. It will make you cry. It will make you stand up and cheer. ‘Erin Brockovich’ is the feel-good movie of the year.”

Tuesday

CATFISH 8 p.m. on MTV. In an ideal world, anytime someone ghosts you on a dating app, Nev Schulman and Kamie Crawford (and let’s throw Max Joseph into this fantasy for old times’s sake) would materialize next to you and put that person in their place. And for the people who write in to the show — that is basically what happens. “Each episode unfolds like a detective show, with the, host Nev Schulman, summoned to untangle truth from lies, to take relationships that exist only on computers and phones and drag them into our three-dimensional reality,” Maya Salam wrote in a recent feature in The Times about the show, which is back for its ninth season.

Wednesday

PRISONER IN RUSSIA: THE BRITTNEY GRINER INTERVIEW 10 p.m. on ABC. In March of 2022, Brittney Griner, a WNBA center, was detained in Russia on drug charges. She ended up pleading guilty in a Russian court and being sentenced to nine years in prison. In December of that year, nearly 10 months later, she was released via a prisoner swap for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer. For the first time, she is sitting down for an interview — with Robin Roberts — to discuss her time in prison.

Thursday

WELCOME TO WREXHAM 10 p.m. on FX. Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are headed back to Wales for the third season of their show about the Wrexham Association Football Club. Coming off a national league championship win during the 2022-2023 season, the team will focus this time around on keeping their competitive edge.

Friday

SHARK TANK 8 p.m. on ABC. We can thank this show for Bombas socks, Scrub Daddy and the Squatty Potty, to name just a few products that originated here — and the sharks haven’t slowed down, with Season 15 wrapping up this week. Mark Cuban and Barbara Corcoran have been the anchors, with guest sharks joining them to hear product pitches and offer investments. In January, the show started casting for the 16th season though Mark Cuban said in 2023 that he had only one year of television left in him. We’ll see.

27 DRESSES (2008) 9 p.m. on Bravo. If dancing on a bar while the jukebox plays “Bennie and the Jets” on repeat is your idea of a good time, then this is the movie for you. Jane (Katherine Heigl) is the older sister of Tess, who is going to marry George, who happens to be Jane’s boss and the man she’s in love with. Got that? Jane, a very classic type-A personality, then meets Kevin (James Marsden), a cynical wedding reporter assigned to write a profile on Tess, which sets up the singing and dancing atop the bar and the rest of the usual rom-com developments.

Saturday

RATATOUILLE (2007) 7:15 p.m. on Freeform. New York City has been trying to combat its rat problem, but maybe it should take a page from this story, or at least use it to banish the stereotypical images of dirty rats and replace them with Remy, a rodent with a passion for cooking. He meets his perfect match — a human chef who has no clue about how to do his job. They work as a pair and open one of the most successful restaurants in Paris.

Sunday

REAL HOUSEWIVES OF NEW JERSEY 8 p.m. on Bravo. Divorce, backstabbing and cosmos, oh my! The women of New Jersey, including Teresa Giudice, Jennifer Aydin, Dolores Catania and Melissa Gorga, are back to their usual antics. The big thing that’s different? During the Season 13 reunion, Giudice officially cut ties with Joe and Melissa Gorga, her brother and sister-in-law, after 10 years of constant squabbles. On an episode of his radio show, Andy Cohen noted that despite Gorga and Giudice not filming with each other this season, it still works.