1) “Quantum Leap,” 8 p.m., NBC. After pausing last week for a debate, NBC returns to its Wednesday strength – new drama hours that are slickly entertaining. “Leap” has an especially good one: Ben time-travels to Princeton, shortly after the death of his hero, Albert Einstein. For the first time, he meets someone (shown here) he met in a previous leap; she was a waitress then and he helped tranform her life.
2) “Magnum PI,” 9 p.m., NBC. Here’s the other new NBC hour, this time with an Amish teen searching for his sister in Hawaii. Things fall into place way too easily, as does a sub-plot about TC nudging back into the dating world. Still, “Magnum” offers a sunny sort of upbeat hour.
3) “Nova,” 9 p.m., PBS. Moments of deep personal passion ripple through this hout. It follows researchers in the final phases of developing a malaria vaccine that could eventually save a million lives … and open up childhoods now confined to a tight, mosquito-net world. Most impressive is the idealism of the researchers. When was the last time you saw someone literally weeping with joy?
4) “Sullivan’s Crossing,” 8 p.m., CW. Opposite lives tug at Maggie, the surgeon torn between the worlds of her mother (married to a rich doctor) and her father (running a low-key Nova Scotia resort. Last week, she faced pre-ttrial medicalquestions in Boston (coached by her step-father) and her boyfriend proposed; at the same time, her dad was sinking back into alcoholism. Now a tragedy brings her back North, to her alternate life.
5) ALSO: The key reality shows continue, with Fox’s “Masked Singer” and CBS’ “Survivor” at 8 p.m. and CBS’ “The Amazing Race” at 9:30. Also at 8, PBS’ “Nature” wraps a series that uses modern technology to capture ocean behavior; at 10, its “Secrets of the Dead” probes new information about early cultures in the Amazon.