Flying circus
"Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus: The Final Farewell" is too busy fawning over the traveling show to address why it folded its tent, but the film does allow you to get up and close and personal with the performers who flew through the air with the greatest of ease. If you really want to learn about the American institution, check out the 2018 documentary "The Circus," now streaming on Netflix.
7 p.m. AXS
Appetite for destruction
"Biography: Chris Farley — Anything for a Laugh" includes plenty of hilarious clips from the late comic's catalog, but there's an overwhelming tone of sadness to the two-hour documentary. Al Franken tears up when recalling how his former "Saturday Night Live" colleague, who died in 1997 at 33, would visit sick children in the hospital. You're likely to get emotional as well.
8 p.m. A&E
The good vet
"The Hot Zone," a miniseries about how the Ebola virus arrived on U.S. soil in 1989, features many scenes of doctors and scientists widening their eyes after peering into a microscope, but Julianna Margulies, as Army veterinarian Nancy Jaax, is an irresistible protagonist. Few actors do a better job of projecting steely determination.
8 p.m. National Geographic
Neal Justin
