What’s Worth Watching: ‘Top Chef’, ‘Legends of Tomorrow’, ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and more for Thursday, December 1

Top Chef - Season 14 - BJ Smith, Padma Lakshmi, Jim Smith
Paul Cheney/Bravo
TOP CHEF -- Episode 1401 -- Pictured: (l-r) BJ Smith, Padma Lakshmi, Jim Smith -- (Photo by: Paul Cheney/Bravo)

Top Chef (10/9c, Bravo): Thursday is shaping up to be a delicious night of reality competition TV. The most revered of all foodie contests, the Emmy-winning Top Chef returns with a fresh twist: pitting eight former also-ran contestants about eight newbies, many of whom seem a bit starstruck to see standouts like Sam (Season 2), Casey (Season 3 and Season 8 All-Stars) and Brooke (one of three from Season 10) back in action. The first episode is built around Quickfire challenges—one for the new group, one for the veterans—and the loser of each must face off in a Sudden Death quickfire. It’s all very tense, and quite entertaining. Graham Elliot from Masterchef joins the judging panel this year, with host Padma Lakshmi, Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons.

The Great American Baking Show (8/7c, ABC): Much gentler in nature than Top Chef, and with far fewer tattoos on display, this adaptation of the BBC’s beloved The Great British Bake Off can still generate suspense, such as when a baker’s show-stopping creation begins to collapse from heat and humidity. The tasteful horror! Once again, the British series’ delightful Mary Berry joins pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini to judge the sweets, which sometimes look almost too good to eat.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (8/7c, The CW): The four way superhero crossover, which has delivered powerhouse ratings all week, concludes as the Legends work with The Flash (Grant Gustin), the Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) and Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) to take down the Dominators for good. Stein (Victor Garber) is confident he knows the way to victory, but is waylaid by yet another time aberration.

The Big Bang Theory (8/7c, CBS): Back to the Future’s Christopher Lloyd guests on a new episode that finds former roomies Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki) going to war over the various gadgets and gizmos they jointly share, as they try to divvy things up. Later, on CBS’s Mom (9/8c), Two and a Half Men’s Jon Cryer directs an episode in which Christy (Anna Faris) goes into overprotective overdrive to try to stop her 12-year-old son Roscoe (Blake Garrett Rosenthal) from continuing the cycle of drug and alcohol abuse.

Inside Thursday TV: Need to be reminded of the true meaning of the holiday season? The eternal A Charlie Brown Christmas returns on ABC (8/7c) to delight us the way it has been doing since 1965. … Fox’s Rosewood (8/7c) recruits a very familiar face to help solve this week’s case: Dr. Daisy Wick (Carla Gallo), one of the more memorable squinterns from Bones, which returns for its final season on Jan. 3. … A new season of Dick Wolf’s A&E docu-series Nightwatch (9/8c) returns with the New Orleans EMS team opening a new headquarters as new paramedic teams adjust to life on the overnight shift. … Rick Springfield revisits his rock roots as Lucifer on The CW’s Supernatural (9/8c), when the devil in disguise as rock star Vince Vincente organizes a VIP concert to kill his many fans. Rock on!