Like you, I'm psyched for Betty White's return to the small screen on Hot in Cleveland, a sitcom about three cosmopolitan women who move to Ohio and live with an elderly caretaker, but I'm just as torqued for the two of the other primetime veterans in this TVLand Series: Valerie Bertinelli and Wendie Malick. The former kept One Day at a Time vivacious for its nine-year run, and the latter gave Just Shoot Me some brassy edge. Tonight's programming also includes the return of a beloved Bravo series and So You Think You Can Dance's competitive weeks.
So You Think You Can Dance [Fox, 8 PM]
The Top 11 face off in their first competitive week. Alex Wong, Kent Boyd, and Billy Bell will get nasty with their pirouettes and start spelling vulgar insults with their hips. New panelist Mia Michaels will cry at almost everything. Adam Shankman will cry harder. Nigel Lythgoe will make bewildered CGI-insect eyes at everyone.
Hot in Cleveland [TV Land, 10 PM]
In the series premiere, the three leading ladies (Valerie Bertinelli, Wendie Malick, Jane Leeves) forsake their urbane lives for an extended stay in Cleveland. Betty White watches over the trio, guiding them through Ohioan travails. There's still room here for a horny superintendent to make dirty innuendos about getting underneath their radiators. Psyched!
Top Chef: Washington D.C. [Bravo, 10 PM]
The new season of Top Chef kicks off in the nation's capital. No word yet on whether the chefs will be forced to create a souffle inspired by Martin Van Buren's gravity-defying hair tufts or a gooey casserole inspired by the sight of William Howard Taft's thighs.
Coal Miner's Daughter [CMT, 9 PM]
Sissy Spacek's Oscar-winning performance as Loretta Lynn set a standard for biopic performances for years to come. Lynn married her husband at age 13 and had four kids by the time she turned 20. She was too naive to ask for a reality series at the time. Beverly D'Angelo co-stars as Patsy Cline, and Tommy Lee Jones scintillates as Lynn's husband Doolittle.