Two USA network favorites return, and not without a few satirical glances at the state of television. Sarah Silverman stars on “Monk” (8 p.m., USA) as Marci Maven, Adrian Monk’s biggest fan. Hey, it’s only fitting that a detective with OCD should have an obsessive fan.

With Marci, the makers of “Monk” appear to be poking gentle fun at the very nature of the over-the-top TV fan. Marci is both devoted and deranged. She maintains a Monk Web site and creates dioramas of his biggest cases and even gives them neat little monikers that sound suspiciously like the titles of episodes of “Monk.” And how does Marci get to spend time with Monk? By taking advantage of that most hackneyed sitcom device: the bachelor auction. But Marci is more than a little touched. She needs Monk’s help when her neighbor is found murdered and mauled, and suspicion falls on Marci’s dog.

Like many comediennes who came before her, Silverman is an attractive woman who is not afraid to make herself look ridiculous for the sake of a joke. She spends the entire episode wearing a baggy pair of Adrian’s pants. How did she get them? She picked them out of the garbage, naturally.

¢ “Psyche” (9 p.m., USA) also returns, and with a silly parody of “American Idol,” or rather the many shows that are themselves a parody of “American Idol.” Our heroes, Shawn Spencer (James Roday) and Gus (Dule Hill), get the call after the nasty British judge Nigel St. Nigel (Tim Curry) becomes the subject of a series of death threats. Gina Gershon offers a memorably cruel portrayal of a drug-addled female judge that can only add insult to Paula Abdul’s injured public image.

¢ A few years back, Barbara Walters took on heaven. Tonight’s “20/20” (9 p.m., ABC) looks in the other direction. Correspondent Bill Weir takes an hour to examine the history of hell in the human imagination. He speaks with people who scoff at the notion and with an individual who claims to have had a near-death experience complete with visions of a forbidding underworld.

Weir also interviews Carlton Pearson, a once-popular minister with a huge congregation who lost many followers when he began to question the biblical basis for hell. After he suggested that hell was essentially a human creation, he lost congregants by the thousands and was charged with being a heretic, and worse.

¢ Note: Earlier in the summer, Fox scheduled the return of “Drive” to the schedule but has since changed its mind. Viewers wondering how the race ends are out of luck. The “Drive” is over.

Tonight’s other highlights

¢ Scheduled on “Expose” (9 p.m., PBS): a little-known but well-connected private firm that has received more government contracts than any private company.

¢ An uncertain engineering student tries to enter the fraternity-sorority scene of his more popular older sister in the network debut of the cable teen melodrama “Greek” (8 p.m., ABC).

¢ The series “Dogfights” (8 p.m., History) returns with a look at the Japanese use of suicide pilots during the late, desperate stages of World War II.

¢ Six would-be models vie for a professional contract on “A Model Life with Petra Nemcova” (9 p.m., TLC).

¢ Musicians Serj Tankian and Tom Morello appear on “The Henry Rollins Show” (10 p.m., IFC).