What to Watch This Week: September 27 to October 2

From Canadian music icons to game show reboots, we round up the top 10 shows to watch this week

1. Fargo – Sunday, September 27, 6 p.m. & 7:20 p.m. (repeating at 9 p.m. & 10:20 p.m.), FX Canada | Season Premiere

The fourth season of Fargo was supposed to debut in April, but production was halted with two episodes still to film. With those final episodes now in the can, this new season marks the first time the crime anthology (based on the 1996 film) isn’t set in Minnesota, but Kansas City, where two crime syndicates fight for control of the city. Comedian Chris Rock stars, along with Ben Whishaw and Jason Schwartzman.

2. Bob’s Burgers – Sunday, September 27, 9 p.m., City & Fox | Season Premiere

The quirky, critically adored cartoon returns for season 11 to find Tina preoccupied with mastering a hand-slapping song that everyone else can pull off with apparent ease. Meanwhile, her dad Bob frantically searches for a missing lock-box key.

3. The Expecting – Monday, September 28, Quibi (Stream) | Series Premiere

AnnaSophia Robb is perhaps still best known for playing a teenaged Carrie Bradshaw on Sex and the City prequel The Carrie Diaries, but the 26-year-old has had a pretty solid career since that ’80s-set bubblegum romp. That includes supporting roles in Mercy Street and The Act, and playing a younger version of Reese Witherspoon in Little Fires Everywhere. This week, she takes the lead again in The Expecting. The latest from bite-sized streaming service Quibi is a Rosemary’s Baby-esque horror show about a woman who becomes pregnant under exceptionally mysterious circumstances.

4. Emergency Call – Monday, September 28, 10 p.m., ABC | Series Premiere

Luke Wilson hosts this new docuseries that chronicles the first crucial minutes of emergencies told through the lens of America’s heroic 911 call takers, following the dramatic moments leading up to the arrival of help rather than the events after the firefighters, police or EMTs screech onto the scene.

5. Jann – Monday, September 23, 8 p.m., CTV

In recent years, there have been more than a few sitcoms centred around a celebrity playing a fictionalized—and often outrageously exaggerated—version of themself, so for a new one to stand out in the crowd, it’s got to be something special. Fortunately, season one of Jann managed to pull off such a feat, thanks to the efforts of the show’s star, singer-songwriter Jann Arden, who portrays a washed-up, self-obsessed Jann Arden—a premise which could scarcely be further from the truth.

Indeed, in the year before Jann premiered, Arden released her 12th album as well as her memoir, and she also co-hosted a lifestyle podcast. What’s more, this year she earned her spot in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Of course, that particular awards ceremony was called on account of COVID, but the point is, she’s in no way out of the public eye and a far cry from washed-up.

If you didn’t catch last week’s season-two premiere, then we regret to inform you that you missed out on a guest-star appearance for the ages: Sarah McLachlan. Don’t worry, though: k.d. lang is forthcoming, and she’s not the only high-profile figure who’ll be popping up. You’ll also see Keshia Chante as an up-and-coming singer, Miguel Rivas as one of Jann’s mega-fans, Cynthia Loyst as a local talk show host and erstwhile Happy Endings star Elisha Cuthbert. Will Jann be able to win back her family and her ex-girlfriend? Will she get her act together and play the gigs Cale has set up for her? Tune in to find out!

6. The First Presidential Debate – Tuesday, September 28, 6 p.m., ABC, CBS, Fox, KCTS, NBC & WTVS

There’s already been plenty of sniping back and forth on the campaign trail (and, alas, Twitter), but now it’s time for a face-to-face showdown in the inaugural 2020 debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

7. Weakest Link – Tuesday, September 29, 8 p.m., NBC | Series Premiere

A familiar game show is ready-made not only for new host Jane Lynch, but also for the times we’re in. Social distancing is built into the Weakest Link set, so contestants answering general-knowledge questions needn’t worry about getting too close when the NBC competition returns this Monday, after a preview the previous week. Glee alum Lynch—who won two of her five Emmys for hosting the network’s Hollywood Game Night—succeeds the 2001-’02 Link’s Anne Robinson (who also presided over the original British version) in getting caustic with players and booting the one who’s deemed most expendable by saying, “You are the weakest link. Goodbye.”

8. The Boys in the Band – Wednesday, September 30, Netflix

First staged in 1969, a year before the Stonewall Riots brought the issue of gay rights to the forefront, The Boys in the Band was a bold and provocative statement due to the simple fact that all its characters were gay men. A 2018 Broadway revival, marking the 50th anniversary of the play’s debut, was a Tony-winning critical triumph, and the original cast of that revival returns for this new screen version produced by Ryan Murphy (The Politician, American Horror Story, Ratched, etc.). The story involves a group of gay men gathering to celebrate one of their birthdays, but the surprise arrival of an uninvited guest from their past—plus, the gang’s all-around inebriation—leads this party to take a nasty turn.

Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) heads the entirely openly gay cast, which includes Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Charlie Carver, Robin de Jesús, Brian Hutchison, Tuck Watkins and Michael Benjamin Washington.

9. The Masked Singer – Wednesday, September 30, 8 p.m., City & Fox

You need not visit the zoo to see giraffes and crocodiles and jellyfish and seahorses. All you really have to do is tune in to another brand-new episode of this top-secret celebrity singing competition as it rolls along with season four this week.

As host Nick Cannon reminded us all during last week’s premiere, this instalment is slated to be the “biggest” one yet. More specifically, this batch of outrageously costumed celebritries have, between them, sold more than 281 million records worldwide, appeared in more than 5,475 episodes of television and 151 films, popped up in five Super Bowls and earned four stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. There’s even a Time 100 Most Influential Person in the mix.

Add in some of the craziest mascot outfits to date (themes include: broccoli, popcorn, mushrooms, baby aliens, etc.), and it’s kind of hard not to be invested in who’s lurking beneath those masks. Luckily, we should get another big reveal this week as Group B takes the stage, and a whole new crop of celebs face the music.

10. Emily in Paris – Friday, October 2, Netflix | Series Premiere

In this witty rom-com, a 20-something PR whiz (Lily Collins) from Chicago lands her dream job in Paris, tasked with revamping the social media strategy of a once-famous fashion brand. As she makes new friends and navigates cultural differences, she also finds herself on the precipice of intriguing new romances.