Thursday’s still thought to be the most important day of the broadcast week, so that might explain why there are the fewest new fall shows yet planned for tor that night. They mostly stick with what’s been working. On our daily look at the 2018-2019 TV season, Thursday’s light crop even has one show that’s a straight reboot (so is it “new” or just back from a 20-year hiatus?); another is a spinoff of a cancelled show. The third just looks like something we’ve seen before.
NEW SHOWS
“Murphy Brown” (CBS, 9 p.m., today). It may be disheartening to see glamorous Candice Bergen at 72, looking a little bit more her age (let’s say the 50s). But it’s great to hear her voice and her sly comic chops on the reboot of her character, enlisted to do a morning cable news shows with a few of her former cohorts from the show. Others seem struggling; Faith Ford can’t find her timing; Grant Shaud, whose schtick was boy producer Miles Silverberg, is now a pained, middle-aged exec coming out of retirement. The main reason they’re back is the giant punching bag in the White House, which also makes the jokes both obvious and not lasting.
“I Feel Bad” (NBC, 9:30 p.m., Oct. 4). A domestic sitcom about a working mom (Sarayu Blue) in a family struggling to make it all work. That Amy Poehler helps produce adds a little verve to the thing, but it ultimately gets bogged down in network-required sex jokes. With Paul Edelstein.
“Legacies” (CW, 9 p.m., Oct. 25). The last vestige of “The Vampire Diaries,” which ended nearly two years ago, “Legacies” sets the action two years after events in the initial spinoff “The Originals,” which expired just last month. Danielle Rose Russell stars as the latest descendent of some vampire, witch and bloodlines, enrolling in the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted. Julie Plec is still the writer and Matt Davis reprises the “Vampire Diaries” role of Alaric Salesman.
RETURNING SHOWS
“The Good Place” (NBC, 8 p.m., returns today), “Superstore” (NBC, Oct. 4), “Grey’s Anatomy” (ABC, 8 p.m., today), “Supernatural” (CW, 8 p.m., Oct. 11), “Law and Order: SVU” (NBC, 9 p.m., today), “Mom” (CBS, 9 p.m., today), “Station 19” (ABC, 9 p.m., Oct. 4), “Will & Grace” (NBC, 9 p.m., Oct. 4), “How to Get Away with Murder” (ABC, 10 p.m., today), “S.W.A.T.” (CBS, 10 p.m., today).