PBS, 8:00 p.m. ET
Fifty years ago, the U.S. blockade of ships heading into Cuba, to protest the construction of Soviet missile bases within 100 miles of the Florida cost, precipitated the Cuban Missile crisis, the closest our planet has come, to this point, to nuclear war. I was a kid in South Florida at the time, but I wasn’t worried: We had been taught to duck and cover, and hide under our school desks. This new documentary profiles the three men who sat at their country’s most powerful desks, without ducking beneath them: John F. Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro. Check local listings.
Fox, 9:00 p.m. ET
In tonight’s new episode, Jess (Zooey Deschanel) offers to help out a hungover Cece by stepping into Cece’s shoes and filling in on a modeling job at an auto show — except those shoes are sky-high stilettos, and the rest of the outfit isn’t much more comfortable or user-friendly.
CW, 9:00 p.m. ET
Mamie Gummer returns in episode two of this new CW series – the test for whether last week’s pleasant pilot was the start of something good, or a lucky fluke. Given how boring most of this year’s new series have been, I’m rooting for another solid outing.
PBS, 10:00 p.m. ET
Simple question: How did climate change, in four short years, go from an almost universally accepted concept to one that’s newly argued about in this year’s political cycle? This new Frontline edition answers that simple question, and does so by following Deep Throat’s still-valuable advice: follow the money. Check local listings.
FX, 10:00 p.m. ET
This week’s new episode is called “Toad’s Wild Ride” – but this season, on this show, whose ride hasn’t been wild?