Russell Crowe Transforms into Roger Ailes in Showtime's The Loudest Voice

The seven-part limited series The Loudest Voice, based on the Gabriel Sherman book The Loudest Voice in the Room is the first of two high profile projects this year focused on Fox News mastermind Roger Ailes. (The second is the feature film Fair and Balanced, set to hit movie theaters later this year with John Lithgow playing Ailes.) The Showtime miniseries is not only first to market, but also seems to have the firepower advantage, with Oscar-winner Russell Crowe, barely recognizable in heavy makup, taking on the role of Roger Ailes. Naomi Watts will play Gretchen Carlson, while Sienna Miller plays the role of Beth Ailes.

SERIES PREMIERE: The Loudest Voice focuses on the ways that Roger Ailes helped shape the current iteration of the Republican Party, ending with the sexual harassment scandals that would ultimately end his career. The first episode is titled "1995." Watch Trailer 10:00 PM ET on Showtime

SERIES PREMIERE: In one of the most ingenious ideas for a TV show in quite some time, Fred Savage stars in What Just Happened??!, a parody of Talking Dead-style fan-service after-shows. The after-show iin this case s built around the also-fake  post-apocalyptic sci-fi series The Flare.  Savage, playing a version of himself, looks to be enthusiastically sending up Chris Hardwick, and between that and the fertile ground for sending up obsessed-over TV shows and late-night talk shows, this could well be the start of something good. Watch Trailer 9:30 PM ET on FOX

SERIES PREMIERE: Emma Greenwell (Hulu's The Path; the original British version of Shameless) stars in the new futuristic thriller The Rook on Starz. The series centers on a woman (Greenwell), who wakes up alone on the Millennium bridge in London with no knowledge of who she is or how she got there. And she's surrounded by dead bodies. The series also stars Joely Richardson (Nip/Tuck), Olivia Munn (The Newsroom), Adrian Lester (Primary Colors), and James D'Arcy (Agent Carter). 8:00 PM ET on Starz

SPECIAL PRESENTATION: The comedy/documentary special Sermon on the Mount features comedian Jerrod Carmichael in his third HBO special. Through personal interviews and conversations with the people in his life, Carmichael explores common themes within the black experience in America. Watch Trailer 6:00 PM ET on HBO

ALSO TONIGHT

• Keeping Up with the Kardashians wraps up its 16th season finale just as Khloe is reeling from the Tristan/Jordyn cheating allegations, and from the looks of the preview, she's really blowing her stack. 9:00 PM ET on E!
• Instinct kicks off a second season of Alan Cumming as a police investigator/CIA veteran hunting down serial killers. 9:00 PM ET on CBS
• Famous Fortune Fights delivers on its title, exploring the money disputes of rich and famous people. Tonight's episode, sure to be a doozy, is about Britney Spears. 8:00 PM ET on REELZ

Joe Reid is the senior writer at Primetimer and co-host of the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast. His work has appeared in Decider, NPR, HuffPost, The Atlantic, Slate, Polygon, Vanity Fair, Vulture, The A.V. Club and more.