What to Watch Wednesday, September 16: MasterChef Finale, Slow Horses & Golden Axe

Wednesday is one of those days when streaming and broadcast television are both making a strong argument for your attention. MasterChef crowns its Global Gauntlet winner tonight, Slow Horses returns for Season 6, and Paramount+ finally unleashes Golden Axe — all ten episodes of it — after decades of the SEGA franchise living primarily in video-game form.

ABC also has Night Two of the Dancing with the Stars Season 35 premiere followed by the debut of its new live DWTS After Party, NBC reveals the America’s Got Talent finalists, Comedy Central begins South Park Season 29, and Bravo launches another season of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. Basically, the fall schedule looked at Wednesday and decided there was no reason any of these things needed to happen on separate nights.

TV Cave Top Pick: MasterChef Crowns Its Global Gauntlet Winner

We've been following this one all season, so there was really no way something else was stealing the Top Pick tonight.

MasterChef: Global Gauntlet concludes tonight at 8 PM ET on FOX, with Jake Kelley, Heidi Muston and Peter Egede finishing the three-course menus that will determine who leaves the kitchen with $250,000 and the title of America's next MasterChef.

Last week's first half of the finale put the final three through their appetizer and entrée rounds, with each cook building a menu around the flavors, experiences and culinary identity that carried them through the competition. Tonight brings the final dishes and, more importantly, the decision from Gordon Ramsay, Tiffany Derry and Joe Bastianich.

That makes the MasterChef finale our TV Cave Top Pick. After months of mystery boxes, restaurant takeovers, impossible time limits and Gordon Ramsay staring at people while they desperately try to make sauce behave, somebody gets the trophy tonight.

Wednesday, September 16 TV Schedule

Time (ET)	Show	Network/Streaming	Tonight
Streaming	Slow Horses	Apple TV	Season 6 premiere
Streaming	Neagley	Prime Video	Series premiere; all 8 episodes
Streaming	Golden Axe	Paramount+	Series premiere; all 10 episodes
Streaming	Route 187	Paramount+	Limited-series premiere
Streaming	The Doll	Netflix	Film premiere
7:00 PM	Orlando City SC at Columbus Crew	Paramount+ / CBS Sports Network	U.S. Open Cup semifinal
8:00 PM	MasterChef: Global Gauntlet	FOX	Season 16 finale; winner crowned
8:00 PM	Dancing with the Stars	ABC / Disney+	Season 35 premiere — Night Two
8:00 PM	America's Got Talent	NBC / Peacock	Semifinals results
8:00 PM	Big Brother	CBS / Paramount+	New Season 28 episode
8:00 PM	The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City	Bravo	Season 7 premiere
8:00 PM	AEW Dynamite	TBS	Live episode
8:00 PM	Forged in Fire	History	New episode
9:00 PM	Next Gen NYC	Bravo	Season 2 reunion, Part 1
9:00 PM	Expedition X	Discovery	New episode
9:00 PM	NOVA	PBS	“The Battle to Breathe”
9:02 PM	Nation's Dumbest	FOX	Season 1 finale
9:30 PM	St. Louis CITY SC at Colorado Rapids	Paramount+ / CBS Sports Network	U.S. Open Cup semifinal
10:00 PM	South Park	Comedy Central	Season 29 premiere
10:00 PM	DWTS After Party	ABC / Disney+	Live series premiere
10:00 PM	The Ark	Syfy	S3E8, “By Any Means Necessary”
10:00 PM	Ages of Ice	PBS	Three-part docuseries premiere

So Wednesday gives us a MasterChef champion, two soccer finalists, six AGT finalists, another round of ballroom dancing, British spies, animated barbarians, Housewives and the return of South Park.

Fall television has stopped knocking politely.