NBC Kicks Off Comedy-Free Thursday Lineup With an Epic Reunion

As Primetimer's Aaron Barnhart writes, it's been a while since NBC went comedy-free on Thursday nights, but with Superstore gone, the network is kicking off its new all-drama lineup with a bang as Chistopher Meloni returns to the show he abruptly departed nearly ten years ago in a special two-hour crossover with the debut of his own new spin-off series, Law & Order: Organized Crime.

Also today: Top Chef hits Portland, Manifest returns for Season 3 and Cristin Milioti is Made For Love on HBO Max. Here's what's new and noteworthy on TV this Thursday:

CROSSOVER EVENT: After making amends with his former colleagues on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Christopher Meloni's Elliot Stabler returns to the NYPD to take on the city's most powerful organized crime syndicates and rebuild his life in Law & Order: Organized Crime. Watch trailer. 9:00 PM ET on NBC

SEASON PREMIERE: COVID protocols have forced some changes to Top Chef's first pandemic-shot season, but as Primetimer Joe Reid writes, they only make tonight's Portland-set premiere more heartwarming. 8:00 PM ET on Bravo

SEASON PREMIERE: Back with its first new episode in nearly a year, tonight's Season 3 premiere of Manifest sees Ben (Josh Dallas) headed on a international mission with Vance (Daryl Edwards) to seek clues to the mystery of Flight 828. Meanwhile, Jared (J.R. Ramirez) is intrigued with a mysterious stranger. Watch trailer. 8:00 PM ET on NBC

LIMITED SERIES PREMIERE: Cristin Milioti (Palm Springs) stars in the darkly comic Made For Love, in which she plays a thirty-something woman who discovers her tech billionaire husband (Billy Magnussen) has installed a monitoring device in her brain. The first three of eight episodes drop today. Watch trailer. Streaming on HBO Max

COMPLETE SECOND SEASON: Gaten Matarazzo (Stranger Things) is back pulling the strings as Prank Encounters returns for a new season of elaborate pranks that involve everything from haunted mansions to ancient burial grounds. Watch trailer. Streaming on Netflix

COMPLETE FIRST SEASON: Based on the New York Times Best Seller by Emily Spivack, Worn Stories opens the closets of a diverse group of people to reveal a treasure-trove of tales about the meaning behind articles of clothing. Watch trailer. Streaming on Netflix

SERIES PREMIERE: As The Real World Homecoming: New York nears the end of its run, Paramount+ is again turning to the Bunim-Murray OGs as it debuts The Challenge: All Stars, in which 22 returning players who first appeared on The Real World, Road Rules or Fresh Meat jet to the Andes Mountains of Argentina to see who is the "greatest of all time." Watch trailer. Streaming on Paramount+

SERIES PREMIERE: Chuck Lorre's fifth comedy joins the CBS lineup, The United States of Al. (The others are Mom, Young Sheldon, B Positive and Bob Hearts Abishola.) This new one has already generated outrage on Twitter (and pushback from its creators). In tonight's pilot episode, marine combat veteran Riley (Parker Young) reunites with his friend Awalmir (Adhir Kalyan), the interpreter who served with his unit in Afghanistan, who's just arrived in America to start a new life. Watch trailer. 8:30 PM ET on CBS

SEASON PREMIERE: Following a six-episode Christmas run in 2019, dysfunctional family comedy The Moodys returns for a second season that sees all three adult children (Jay Baruchel, Chelsea Frei, Francois Arnaud) back living with their parents Sean and Ann (Denis Leary, Elizabeth Perkins). Two episodes air back-to-back. Watch trailer. 9:00 PM ET on Fox

Jed Rosenzweig is the Founder and Publisher of Primetimer.