A night of new and returning series includes the 23rd season opener for the talent showcase "The Voice" (7 p.m., NBC, TV-PG). Competing coaches include Chance the Rapper, Niall Horan, Kelly Clarkson and Blake Shelton. Over the course of the season, music legend, Broadway performer and sitcom star Reba McEntire will return as a "mega mentor."

NBC has also announced a series of tweaks to the format of the show, as it makes its way through various rounds, including battles, knockouts and playoffs.

-- Forty years is a long time between sequels. Hulu launches the eight-part comedy series "History of the World Part II." The original Mel Brooks movie played on the big screen in 1981, and the writer-director appears at the beginning to introduce the sequel. Nearing his centenary, Brooks brags that he agreed to make "History" on the condition that he be rendered by CGI into a buff young version of himself.

"History" will air its eight episodes over four nights, with two arriving nightly through Thursday. Look for an accent on the silly, or perhaps the "zany," as a "History" concocted by Brooks, Wanda Sykes, Nick Kroll and starring dozens of familiar actors wanders its way through the American Civil War and Gen. Grant's fondness for strong spirits, the execution of Czar Nicholas II and his family, the evolution of the "real" "Kama Sutra" and a place called Shakespeare's writers' room.

Brooks certainly knows from writers' rooms, having been part of the legendary staff behind the comedy scripts for Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows," a group that included Carl Reiner, Neil Simon and Woody Allen, among others. The series, which ran from 1950-54, was considered the most sophisticated comedy showcase from television's infancy.

Not all the jokes in "History of the World Part II" are stellar, but you can see why a large ensemble would want to work with Brooks, a link to television and comedy history.

-- "Perry Mason" (8 p.m., HBO, TV-MA) returns for a second season, three years after it debuted in 2020. Matthew Rhys stars in the title role. As viewers of the first go-round may recall, these adaptations hew more faithfully to the Erle Stanley Gardner novels and short stories than did the iconic TV series and TV movies that starred Raymond Burr.

This "Perry" makes the most of the gritty Los Angeles of the Great Depression era. Stylistically, it may remind viewers of films including "Chinatown" and "L.A. Confidential."

Look for Juliet Rylance as Mason's confidante, Della Street. The season opens with the murder of a member of one of the city's most prominent families. When a police raid of the poorer quarters churns up the usual suspects, a weary Mason, not quite recovered from last season's trial, knows he has to get back to work.

Viewers may know Rhys best from his star turn in "The Americans." He is married to his co-star (and wife) from that series, Keri Russell. Both appear in the latest movie-of-the-minute, "Cocaine Bear," along with their "Americans" co-star Margo Martindale.

TONIGHT'S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

-- Murder accusations divide Navy brass on "NCIS" (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).

-- Another dead sailor on "NCIS: Hawai'i" (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).

-- War games become all too real on "Quantum Leap" (9 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).

-- Dr. Park must treat a patient who once had an affair with his wife on "The Good Doctor" (9 p.m., ABC, TV-14).

-- A working-class mother, her 10-year-old daughter and her rich gay friend form an unlikely family on the fringes of society in the BBC-import "Rain Dogs" (9 p.m., HBO, TV-MA).

-- The lights go out on "The Watchful Eye" (9 p.m., Freeform, TV-14).

CULT CHOICE

The late 1990s were big on the Bard. Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger star in the 1999 romantic comedy "10 Things I Hate About You" (7 p.m., Freeform), an update of "The Taming of the Shrew." Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes star in "Shakespeare in Love" (8:30 Showcase), an origin story of sorts behind the making of "Romeo & Juliet."