Not surprisingly, tonight’s best new offering comes from the always reliable Steven Bochco (“NYPD Blue,” “High Street Blues”). Debuting at 10 p.m. on ABC, “Philly” is a courtroom drama starring Kim Delaney.

Perhaps the plum role of Kathleen Maguire is a reward for Delaney’s tenure as Diane Russell, long-suffering mother figure of “NYPD Blue.” It promises to be much more challenging than her former role has been for the past couple of seasons.

Delaney’s Maguire is a dedicated but inexperienced defense attorney in Philadelphia. She’s divorced from an up-and-coming assistant district attorney (Kyle Secor, “Homicide”) and is the working mother of a fifth-grade boy. Nobody – her son, her ex, her mother – understands why she wants to represent the “scum of the earth.”

Life gets even crazier when her veteran partner has a breakdown in the opener. That leaves her scrambling to cover all their cases. Will Froman, an opportunistic public defender played by Tom Everett Scott (“That Thing You Do”), weasels his way into an uneasy working relationship with the stressed Maguire, even though she knows little about him. Prosecutor Terry Loomis (Rick Hoffman) is her sympathetic sounding board.

Delaney is winning as the put-upon-but-compassionate Maguire, and she’s surrounded by a strong supporting and guest cast. “Philly” definitely provides an edgier alternative to CBS’ kinder, gentler courtroom drama “Judging Amy,” and should take off as a result.

Also tonight, it’s not a recent trend to build a sitcom around a neophyte actor. No one thought it was sacrilege to let Jerry Seinfeld play a stand-up comic in his eponymous sitcom, and that worked out pretty well.

Yet critics hooted at the idea of taking Emeril Lagasse, The Food Channel uberchef, and letting him play a fictionalized version of himself in a network sitcom. “He’s no actor” seemed to be the overriding sentiment.

Is “Emeril,” debuting at 8 p.m. on NBC, as bad as feared? No, but what could be?

“Emeril” has proven talent behind him in the husband-and-wife team of Linda Bloodworth and Harry Thomason, who were behind such past hits as “Designing Women” and “Evening Shade.” Sure, those series were more Southern fried than deep fried, but the couple knows what makes a show ticks.

Both of those shows ended up getting prematurely aborted by egos, but that shouldn’t be the case with “Emeril.” After all, he still has his cable show to go back to.

Lagasse seems to be aware of his limitations. He’s largely the straight man surrounded by characters in the supporting cast. As Emeril’s agent, Jerry, Robert Urich lampoons his past TV image by playing an overconfident, aging womanizer. Sherri Shepherd is another standout as Emeril’s sassy stage manager, Melva.

NBC has done “Emeril” no favors by scheduling opposite two well-established, better sitcoms in “That ’70s Show” and the faltering “Dharma & Greg” (and even his “Emeril Live” show). Unless it manages to get moved into a more friendly slot, “Emeril” will never get too well-done, through little fault of its own.

Also debuting at 9 tonight on CBS, although not reviewed, is “The Guardian.” The drama revolves around Nick Fallin (played by Simon Baker), a hotshot young lawyer who must perform community service or risk being disbarred. Alan Rosenberg (“Civil Wars”) plays his boss at the child-advocacy office where he does his service, and Dabney Coleman plays his father, the boss of his law firm.