Jon Stewart Returns to ‘The Daily Show,’ ‘NCIS’ Anchors CBS Monday Lineup, Racial Diversity in Space, History of Gospel

Back in the seat where he made TV history (and won 10 consecutive Emmys for variety/comedy series), Jon Stewart returns to the satirical mock-news show through the 2024 election cycle. He’ll sit behind the desk on Mondays, with Daily Show correspondents rotating the rest of the week. He’ll also be the show’s guiding spirit, acting as executive producer with showrunner Jen Flanz and his manager, James “Baby Doll” Dixon. This is welcome news after more than a year of celebrity guest anchors. No one does it quite like Stewart, and the times call for his electrifying brand of indignant mockery.

With the Big Game now in the rear-view mirror, CBS gets down to business with a premiere week of its scripted hits, anchored by the Season 21 opener of the NCIS mothership. The focus is on Torres (Wilmer Valderrama), who’s arrested and put back behind bars—where he spent much of the Season 20 finale undercover—when feds charge him with the murder of the man who caused his family so much physical and emotional pain back in the day. The team rallies to get to the truth, but are stymied when Torres waives his right to a lawyer and pleads guilty. As a frustrated Knight (Katrina Law) remarks, “How many times does he need to confess until we believe him?”

How time flies. Season 6 of the domestic sitcom opens with Gemma (Beth Behrs) and Dave (Max Greenfield) coping with son Grover’s (Hank Greenspan) growing pains as a teenager. Next door, Calvin (Cedric the Entertainer) and son Marty (Marcel Spears) clash over how to run their new electric-vehicle repair shop. And there are more complications in the workplace, involving Marty’s new hire, Courtney (Skye Townsend). Followed by the premiere of the fifth and final season of Bob Hearts Abishola (8:30/7:30c), where Abishola (Folake Olowofoyeku) loses her usual cool upon learning son Dele (Travis Wolfe Jr.) has decided not to go to Harvard.

The Los Angeles version of the hit franchise may have ended, but Sam Hanna (special guest star LL Cool J) isn’t going anywhere. To Tennant’s (Vanessa Lachey) surprise, Sam shows up to conduct her final interview to clear her to return to work, having passed her medical and psych evaluations. He also joins her stateside to track a hacker in Las Vegas who breached the U.S. Marshal’s database.

A stirring documentary profiles NASA’s pioneering Black pilots, scientists and engineers who looked to the stars even when society tried to hold them back. Among the subjects: Guion Bluford, the first Black astronaut in space—who was recruited by Star Trek icon Nichelle Nichols (the original Lt. Uhura).

Over four hours and two nights (concluding Tuesday), Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Finding Your Roots) presents a history of the Black gospel tradition, blending traditional spirituals with the blues for a new, joyous and deeply sacred genre of music that provided a soundtrack for the civil-rights era and beyond. Interviews include Dionne Warwick, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, Rev. Otis Moss and Professor Michael Eric Dyson, and there’s also plenty of rousing music, provided by the likes of The Belle Sisters, Cory Henry and Celisse.

INSIDE MONDAY TV:

• The Bachelor (8/7c, ABC): Joey takes his remaining ladies overseas to Malta, with the season’s largest group date yet. Another episode follows Tuesday.
• America’s Got Talent: Fantasy League (8/7c, NBC): The Top 10 acts compete in the finals—three each from Simon Cowell’s and Howie Mandel’s Dream Teams, and two each from Mel B’s and Heidi Klum’s. Viewers vote for the winner, which will be revealed in next Monday’s finale.
• The Many Loves of Frasier Crane (8/7c, COZI TV): The vintage TV network celebrates Valentine’s Day with a week of prime-time marathons of the Emmy-winning sitcom, four episodes a night, leaning into romantic farce. The first night features a two-parter from 1994 in which Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) takes a new love interest (JoBeth Williams) to exotic Bora Bora, only to find his ex, Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth), at the same resort.
• Killer Performance (9/8c, 6 pm/PT, Reelz): Experts look behind the carefully crafted facades of serial killers including Ted Bundy and (at 10/9c) John Wayne Gacy.
• The Irrational (10/9c, NBC): In Season 1’s penultimate episode, Alec (Jesse L. Martin) and his team encounter the man who was jailed for the church bombing 20 years ago, while Jace (Brian King) makes a break in the case.
• The Housewife and the Hustler 2: The Reckoning (streaming on Hulu): A sequel to the ABC News true-crime report brings Erika Jayne (The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills) face to face with some of the victims of her estranged husband, disgraced attorney Tom Girardi.