NBC Sports Network, 2:15 p.m. ET
At 2:15 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network presents live coverage of the gold medal match in women’s soccer, with the resilient USA team facing, in this year’s Olympic final, the efficient and impressive squad from Japan. The match that got the USA here, a thriller of a game against Canada, was perhaps the most exciting soccer game I’ve ever seen – with the US scoring the winning goal in the final minute of extra overtime, and emerging as victors, 4-3, without lining up for a shootout, which was imminent in less than a minute of play. Even with so many other events occurring today, this one – in which Japan gets to defend its 2011 World Cup victory against this very team – easily gets the gold so far as I’m concerned.
USA, 9:00 p.m. ET
For the first time this season, Michael (Jeffrey Donovan) and Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar) are working together, side by side, on a mission. But this week, it’s not the only mission – and they’re not the only operatives.
PBS, 10:00 p.m. ET
This seems to be an annual tradition now, and a very welcome one: a collection of brief, disparate film shorts, presented under the P.O.V. banner. Tonight’s selection includes one Oscar-nominated short (The Barber of Birmingham, about an influential Alabama man who cut hair, and raised civil-rights consciousness, for more than 50 years), and, among other treats, a new collection of animated versions of the public radio StoryCorps project (pictured). Check local listings.
FX, 10:30 p.m. ET
I love this guy. Who else but Louis C.K. is taking self-effacing self-examination to such painfully hilarious levels these days? Part of tonight’s episode has the comic watching a retrospective TV special presenting clips from his standup routine when he just started out: clean-shaven, thin, with a full head of red hair and a lot of green jokes. And what pains Louie the most while reliving this, apparently, are the jokes.
FX, 11:00 p.m. ET
SERIES PREMIERE: Chris Rock is damned smart, and damned funny, about popular culture and race, and he’s the executive producer of this new FX standup comedy series featuring W. Kamau Bell, who is damned smart, and damned funny, on those same topics as well. Like the same network’s BrandX with Russell Brand, this series is performed and taped at the last minute to increase topicality – but grading on a Bell curve, expect a lot more substance, as well as genuine laughs, here. Take, for example, his unforgettable mathematical proof about why black culture can lay claim to country music: “Country Music = The Blues Minus Slavery.”