My kids think I'm weird for watching chess but it is a perfect background show to have on - baseball is the other sport that works fairly well. There are also some really fantastic commentators (Peter Svidler and Jan Gustaffson are my favorites). Finally most of the top players are also almost absurdly humble and friendly
Snooker, let's plays and esports in general fill this niche for me very well. I previously got very into Go which also worked well so I can absolutely see chess serving you well.
I don't have kids yet, but I'm looking forward to the prospect of having Starcraft and chess tournaments on along with my usual Sunday football once I do. One (obvious) very cool thing about the internet is that these hobbies that previously weren't profitably marketable can be televised and commentated on at very low cost.
