If the Play:1s are set up as surrounds with the Beam in the Sonos app, then the Play:1s should be working when playing TV audio.

What model Samsung TV do you have? Do you have a Beam Gen 1 or Gen 2?

The Beam is the only device that connects to the TV, via HDMI ARC. The surrounds would be connected to the Beam, as surrounds, not to the TV set. 

Watching this, as I seem to have the same issue. My Beam Gen 1 is bonded via the Sonos app with a pair of Sonos Play:1s for surround sound. Surround works for all music sources, as it should; but when I send sound from my Samsung TV (via HDMI Arc) to the Beam, no sound gets thrown wirelessly to the pair of Sonos Play:1s. Thanks for any advice. 

The Beam needs to be connected to the TV’s HDMI-ARC port via an HDMI cable in order to do surround sound.  I don’t know how you are “send(ing) sound wirelessly from my Samsung TV (HDMI Arc) to the Beam”, because HDMI-ARC is not wireless.  Are you using Airplay perhaps?  If so, Airplay is stereo only and will not use the surrounds. 

Your’re right. That was sloppy of me. It’s HDMI eARC, and it is wired with an HDMI cable.

But the same problem is happening. Music flows to all 3 speakers. But sound from my TV stops at the Beam.

The TV is a 65" Class QN800A Samsung Neo QLED 8K Smart TV (2021) Model # QN65QN800AFXZA. 

The Beam is Gen 1.

The sound from the TV only comes out of the Beam. It does not come out of the Play:1s which are bonded with the Beam and work perfectly with music from any app.

What is the source material?  Check the Now Playing screen for the Beam room.  There will be an indicator of the source type on the lower left.  Surround will be either Dolby Atmos or Dolby 5.1.  If you aren’t seeing these, either your source isn’t actually surround sound, or your TV settings are incorrect.

Note: If you are using YouTube as a test, the vast majority of YouTube videos are stereo PCM, even if they are marked as DD 5.1 or Atmos.  Pick a source which you know is surround, like Netflix, Disney+, or Prime.

Wow, this community is good! OK, so now that I have switched TV audio to pass-through, voila, surround sound is playing on my Play:1s when I am watching Netflix. Amazing!

But when I am watching basic digital cable (say, CNN from Verizon FiOS), I get no sound from the Play:1s. At the same time, the physical volume buttons on the Play1:s do control the sound that comes out of the Beam, as if I were using the TV remote. 

Is that normal? Is there a way to get non-surround sound to play on my rear channels? 

CNN doesn’t normally (ever?) transmit in a 5.1 signal of any type. It’s really rare for any non entertainment (read news, mostly) show to broadcast in anything that would send a signal to the rear surround speakers. 

Oh, sorry, didn’t answer the last question.

Essentially, no, there is no setting in Sonos to send the center channel (voice, usually)  to the surround speakers (ambient noise, usually).