DESCENDANTS
Disney Channel, 8:00 p.m. ET
Disney Channel is throwing all the clout it can into this new made-for-TV musical, hoping to recreate the lightning that was captured in High School Musical a Disney generation ago. (Specifically, 2006.) Kenny Ortega, who directed High School Musical, is behind Descendants as well, and it centers on the secretly raised, now-teen children of four iconic Disney villains. Mal (Dove Cameron) is the daughter of Maleficent (played here by Kristin Chenoweth, pictured with the young series leads); Carlos (Cameron Boyce) is the son of Cruella de Vil; Evie (Sofia Carson) is the daughter of Kathy Najimy’s Evil Queen; and Jay (Booboo Stewart) is the son of Jafar. Will “Evil: The Next Generation” catch on big-time with fickle young viewers? The Twitter universe will tell us… as this musical unspools, like golden thread from Sleeping Beauty’s spinning wheel.