Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: Last season, when Fox unveiled its American remake of this weird Korean TV hit, host Nick Cannon pretended not to be thrown by any of the strangeness – not by the ornate yet tacky costumes worn by the anonymous “masked singer” competitors, and not by the judges’ laughably optimistic and unrealistic guesses about which celebrities might be hiding underneath their disguises. (“It’s Beyoncé!” screamed one. Yeah, right. Why not Bruce Springsteen, or Banksy, or John Lennon?) The panelists, returning with more idiotic predictions, are Nicole Scherzinger, Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy, and Ken Jeong. Last year, the masked singers included Terry Bradshaw, Donny Osmond, and Gladys Knight, and the last masked singer left standing, the winner of the initial U.S. cycle, was T-Pain. Yes, T-Pain, who won as The Monster! Wow! T-Pain!!!! And since last season was a hit for Fox, this Season 2 of Masked Singer may well attract even bigger celebrities than T-Pain. Maybe even A-Pain, or someone else on the A list. Among the all-new costumes this season are Panda, Flamingo, Ice Cream, Tree, Black Widow – and Ladybug (pictured), who strutted her stuff on the red carpet Sunday at Fox’s Emmys.
PBS, 8:00 p.m. ET
CONCLUSION. This is Episode 8, the concluding chapter of Ken Burns’ newest documentary epic. He and writer Dayton Duncan have opted to end their series in the year 1996, so it doesn’t cover the most recent 23 years of country music history. But its historical perspective does linger just long enough to present the start of the final chapter of Johnny Cash’s amazing artistic journey – when, in 1994, he teamed with producer Rick Rubin for American Recordings, the first of his acclaimed series of stripped-bare songs and covers, including, on the first release, haunting recordings of “The Beast In Me” and “Bird on the Wire.” Check local listings.
ABC, 10:00 p.m. ET
SERIES PREMIERE: Cobie Smulders, who has successfully negotiated both the silly romantic comedy of the CBS sitcom
How I Met Your Mother and the action-movie requirements of the Marvel
Avengers franchise, stars in this new drama series. It’s based on a graphic novel, and set in Portland, and presents Smulders as Dex, a war veteran with a past, a drinking problem, and some apparent PTSD – like an ABC version of Netflix’s Marvel heroine from another illustrated inspiration,
Jessica Jones, which presented Krysten Ritter as a similarly rough-and-tumble protagonist
. Watch
Stumpland for the leading lady, and see if that’s enough for you. For full reviews,
see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower and
Ed Bark's Uncle Barky's Bytes.
Comedy Central, 10:00 p.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: It’s astounding, really, but this is the Season 23 opener for South Park. And it’s still dancing on the edges of controversy and current events: Tonight’s episode is titled “Mexican Joker,” and has ice coming to the small South Park community of Colorado. No, wait – that wouldn’t be unusual. ICE. It’s not frozen weather, it’s immigration patrol – as in ICE.
FX, 10:00 p.m. ET
I didn’t like last week’s season premiere much: This new story, 1984, seems like little more than an excuse to wallow in the slasher genre of the Eighties. But there is more going on here: the serial killer who has come to terrorize the summer camp is the so-called Night Stalker, played by Zach Villa (pictured). He was an actual serial killer in 1984-85 (real name Richard Ramirez), and the character also has appeared, as a ghost, in American Horror Story: Hotel. More and more, these seemingly disconnected seasons of AHS are revealing their hidden connections.
FXX, 10:30 p.m. ET
SERIES PREMIERE: This new series from FXX is a sort of Short Attention Span Theater – or, if you prefer, a self-contained, self-programmed alternative to YouTube. Some of the short pieces that are slices of Cake are animated. Others are live action. But all are very brief, so if you don’t like one, stick around. As with Robot Chicken,something even stranger is just around the bend…