‘Top Chef’s New Host, Comedy Royalty in ‘Palm Royale,’ Glenn Close Visits ‘The New Look,’ Divas Clash on ‘Abbott’

Season Premiere

9/8c

There’s a new but familiar face at the judges’ table in Season 21 of the trendsetting cooking competition, when Season 10 winner and TV personality Kristen Kish (Restaurants at the End of the World) takes over as host from Padma Lakshmi, who stepped down after 17 years. The infectiously upbeat Midwesterner seems immediately at home on the set and in the season’s new location of Wisconsin, starting in Milwaukee. Kish introduces the 15 contestants to a few new twists, including cash prizes, but no immunity, for winning the Quickfire challenges. Immunity for the next round instead goes to each episode’s Elimination Challenge winner. The opener skips the Quickfire altogether, plunging the chef-testants into an individual challenge in which they prepare a special dish for one of the three judges: stuffed pasta for Gail Simmons, soup for Kish or a perfectly roasted chicken for Tom Collichio. Don’t watch on an empty stomach.

Series Premiere

The stellar cast of this comedy, set in 1969 Palm Beach, includes Saturday Night Live alum Kristen Wiig, comedy legend Carol Burnett, Oscar and Emmy winners Allison Janney and Laura Dern, the latter’s dad Bruce Dern, plus Ricky Martin, Leslie Bibb and sitcom vets Mindy Cohn and Julia Duffy. How could it go wrong? Try bloating the episodes to roughly 50 minutes each, shifting tone uneasily between comedy and forced drama, and trapping Burnett in a bed in a coma (and later, speech-impaired by a stroke) for much of the series. Still, Wiig gives it her all—and so do the production designers—in this yarn of a social-climbing former pageant queen who’ll do anything to be accepted by Palm Beach’s elite inner circle of society matrons, no matter the improbable cost. Janney scores as the haughty queen bee and Martin brings heart to his role of Burnett’s caretaker (and bartender at the exclusive Palm Royale club), but it’s hard to root for anyone in this overbaked satire of surreally privileged yet unhappy housewives. Launches with three episodes.

Glenn Close makes a rare TV appearance, guest-starring on the historical drama as fashion influencer Carmel Snow, editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar. She’s come to Europe in the wake of WWII, seeking a “post-war visionary to lead us into the next chapter” of fashion. To Coco Chanel’s (Juliette Binoche) chagrin, she’s out of the running because she’s of the wrong generation, plus all those rumors of her collaborating with the Nazi enemy. It won’t take long for Carmel to discover the budding genius of Christian Dior (Ben Mendelsohn), who’s busy launching his own house and dealing with more family trauma.

9/8c

When have you ever known the comedy powerhouse known as Principal Ava (Janelle James) to be rendered speechless? For an awkward moment, that’s what happens when she and “teacher of the year” Gregory (Tyler James Williams) sit on a panel about public-school education, which morphs into a bizarre competition with Ava’s sorority sister nemesis, Crystal (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s Tatyana Ali). Back at school, the teachers are distracted during CPR training by relationship gossip, primarily Melissa’s (Lisa Ann Walter) ongoing fling with Fire Captain Robinson (Mike O’Malley), while Janine (Quinta Brunson) appeals to the school superintendent (Keegan-Michael Key, droll as ever) for approval of her librarian program, but only if it’s free.

10/9c

Good grief, Alan Tudyk is even funnier as alien-in-disguise Harry when he’s an emotional wreck. “Take me! I want to die!” Harry wails when cosmic circumstances compel his Blue Avian lover Heather (Edi Patterson) to fly the proverbial coop. Once again, it’s up to Asta (Sara Tomko) and D’arcy (Alice Wetterlund) to snap him out of his misery and refocus Harry on his mission of saving Earth from the Gray Aliens. “I am so tired of playing parent to this alien child,” Asta sighs. But does she have a choice?

INSIDE WEDNESDAY TV:

• NCAA Women’s Basketball (7 pm/ET, ESPNU): Fighting to get into the championship bracket are the “First Four” teams, starting with No. 16 Presbyterian vs. No. 16 Sacred Heart, followed by a match between No. 12 Columbia vs. No 12 Vanderbilt. (Thursday’s roster features No. 11 Arizona vs. No. 11 Auburn and No. 16 UT Martin vs. No. 16 Holy Cross.) The women’s championship games begin Friday.
• The Masked Singer (8/7c, Fox): The last batch of disguised celebrity singers participates in “Billy Joel Night,” with panelist Robin Thicke kicking the show off with a rendition of “My Life.”
• Wild Cards (8/7c, The CW): The Season 1 finale tests the relationship of Det. Ellis (Giacomo Gianniotti) and his con-woman partner Max (Vanessa Morgan) during a caper involving her ex and an infamous Imperial egg. Followed by the Season 3 finale of Family Law (9/8c), where Abby (Jewel Staite) argues on behalf of a client who learned through DNA that her daughter was switched at birth.
• The Conners (8/7c, ABC): With Ben (Jay R. Ferguson) unhappily turning 50, Darlene (Sara Gilbert) urges him to make some new male friends. Maybe she should be more concerned about son Mark (Ames McNamara), who’s leaning on Harris (Emma Kenney) to buy beer for him and his friends.
• Survivor (8/7c, CBS): One castaway may have overshared with their tribe, a strategy that often backfires. Followed by The Amazing Race (9:30/8:30c), continuing its “mega-leg” in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
• Chicago Med (8/7c, NBC): An all-new night of Chicago procedurals begins with Crockett (Dominic Rains) clashing with the Chief of Oncology, then on Chicago Fire (9/8c), Severide (Taylor Kinney) runs afoul of cops after finding a stash of hidden money on a call. On Chicago P.D. (10/9c), the Intelligence unit works with a SVU detective to nab a repeat offender.
• Trafficked: Underworlds with Mariana van Zeller (9/8c, National Geographic): The docuseries’ harrowing season finale finds the journalist and her crew trapped in Niger during a military coup while she was investigating reports of gold mining funding local terrorist groups.

ON THE STREAM:

• Homicide: New York (streaming on Netflix): A true-crime docuseries from Dick Wolf’s company tells the story of five headline-grabbing murder cases in New York through the recollections of detectives and prosecutors. A Homicide: Los Angeles series will air later this year.
• X-Men ’97 (streaming on Disney+): A new animated series from Marvel Animation relives the glory days of the mutant superheroes in the 1990s.