This Week in TV: A Guide to New and Returning Series

In a TV landscape littered with more than 500 scripted originals and another 700 reality and docuseries, figuring out what to watch can feel like a Herculean task.

The week of Aug. 13-19 probably qualifies as a “slow” week, and still about two dozen shows have their season or series premiers. The Hollywood Reporter is sorting through the lineup to highlight the most anticipated new and returning shows on broadcast, cable and streaming. Here’s what to watch for the week of Aug. 6. (You should also bookmark THR‘s handy guide for key premiere and finale dates.)

On broadcast …

The commercial broadcast networks are deep in the dog days of summer, with no premieres set for the week. On PBS, however, you have a chance to tune into the finale of The Great British Baking Show to see who wins the title this time (assuming you haven’t already looked up the results online). Plus, the pubcaster says it doesn’t plan to import more seasons, so get your fill of Mary, Paul, Mel and Sue while you can.

Airs: Friday, Aug. 17, at 9 p.m. (check local PBS listings)

On cable …

It’s the Sharknado to end all Sharknados — or so Syfy says. The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time, the sixth and allegedly last movie in the gleefully low-budget series, finds Fin (Ian Ziering) and Co. traveling back in time (because of course) to stop the first-ever Sharknado and, presumably, thereby erasing the five previous movies from existence.

Airs: Sunday, Aug. 19, at 8 p.m. ET/PT (Syfy)

In case you missed it …

Season two of Get Shorty, starring Chris O’Dowd and Ray Romano, premiered Sunday on Epix. If you don’t subscribe to the premium channel (a decent bet; it’s in about 15 million homes), the critically acclaimed show (based on the Elmore Leonard novel and 1995 movie of the same name) is available on iTunes and Amazon, as well as Epix’s stand-alone service, Epix HD.

Airs: Sunday, 9 p.m. (Epix)