What to watch this week (July 16-22)

It's a competitive week, with the ESPYs, "Driving Force," the Tour de France and "America's Got Talent" all in the scrum.

All times Central

SUNDAY

If global warming causes the waters to rise and your Aunt Florence loses her house to flooding … in Nevada … don’t say you weren’t warned. On the heels of Al Gore’s heavily publicized “An Inconvenient Truth” comes former NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw’s “Global Warming: What You Need to Know,” at 8 tonight on the Discovery Channel. In collaboration with NBC and the BBC, the two-hour special emphasizes methods Americans are undertaking to reduce global warming.

Athletes from around the world put on tuxes and give each other impressive-looking trophies on ESPN’s annual “ESPYs” telecast, airing at 8 p.m. on ESPN. That’s preceded by the obligatory red carpet preshow at 7 p.m. on ESPN2. Lance Armstrong, recipient of many an ESPY Award in the past, graduates to host this year.

MONDAY

Pity John Force. He’s a legend in the field of drag racing. He has four knockout daughters. They’re all in the family business, including three who have broken the gender barrier and stepped onto the drag strip to compete. You’d think he’d be busting his buttons with pride. But that would not be the reaction we see in “Driving Force,” which debuts at 8 p.m. on A&E. In the spirit of previous trash-talking reality shows “Growing Up Gotti” and “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” “Driving Force” revolves around the conflict between John and the offspring he barely knew while he was out making millions driving fast cars. About 90 percent of the dialogue, and 100 percent of the bombast, comes from John (typical line: “I’m feeling a lot of pressure right now and it ain’t gas!”).

WEDNESDAY

It’s still not clear whether “America’s Got Talent,” but NBC seems to have a hit in this throwback to variety shows of old. (I’m pretty sure, though, that Ed Sullivan would’ve fainted if he saw Leonid on his stage. The bizarro sword balancer won over the “America’s Got Talent” studio audience earlier this month.) Hosted by the suitably old-school Regis Philbin, this menagerie of screwball acts and genuinely talented people has zoomed to the top of the Nielsens. Tune in at 8 p.m. to NBC (KSHB-TV, Channel 41), then cast your vote for the contestant you think should advance to the next round. Results are announced 8:30 p.m. Thursday.

SATURDAY

The 2006 Tour de France officially ends Sunday with the ceremonial parade up and down the Champs Élysées. But the winner of the overall classification — that is, the guy who gets to wear the yellow jersey for the next year — could be determined today on a 57-kilometer route between Le Creusot and Montceau-les-Mines, about an hour outside Paris. Unlike most of the tour’s 20 stages, this one is an individual time trial in which cyclists are watching the clock instead of each other. This should favor one of the leading American contenders, Floyd Landis, who announced during the tour’s second week that he has a degenerative hip condition that could end his career after this race. OLN’s coverage, featuring the splendid race-calling of Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen, begins at 7:30 a.m.