Syfy announced today that it's bringing back 'Face Off,' its reality competition to find Hollywood's best special effects makeup artists.

The show's first season averaged 1.4 million viewers, Deadline reports.

'Face Off' pits a combination of seasoned Hollywood pros and up-and-coming artists against each other in a series of timed challenges, TV Squad's own Mike Moody explained at the beginning of the season. The winner walked away with $1,000,000 and a year's worth of professional makeup supplies.

In other TV news ...

• Disney has anointed the new heir to Miley Cyrus' crown: Debby Ryan. The 'Suite Life' starlet is the latest actress to get her own show on the channel. 'Jessie' follows a teenager from Texas who moves to New York and becomes an au pair for a wealthy family. [The Hollywood Reporter]

• 'Mad Men' still isn't officially coming back, but Rich Sommer has booked a guest role in the meantime. The man also known as Harry Crane will appear in an upcoming episode of 'Nikita' as an electrical engineer and CIA consultant who helps Nikita break into Division. [TV Line]

• Recent 'Vampire Diaries' and 'Chuck' guest star Lauren Cohan has scored her own CW show. The actress will play a young female attorney who tackles cases with a former angel. '90210' star Ryan Eggold has also landed a lead role. Meanwhile, 'Gossip Girl' guest star Kevin Zegers will play one of the leads on Josh Schwartz's 'Georgetown' pilot. [Deadline]

['Face Off' – 'Out of This World']

This week's episode of 'Face Off' was a treat for sci-fi nerds as a special guest judge, 'Star Trek' alien designer Michael Westmore, inspired the contestants to create their own original alien creature.

Our fledgling behind-the-scenes stars were charged with designing a fictional inhabitant of a very real planet, Gliese 581 g – the most Earth-like planet that exists outside of our solar system (that we know of, of course).

The artists met Westmore -- an Oscar-winning designer who created the aliens for all four 'Star Trek' spin-off shows and the 'TNG' movies -- at the iconic Vasquez rocks (where Captain Kirk famously karate-chopped the Gorn, Bill and Ted got dead, and Malcolm McDowell made a million nerds very very angry).

After some sage creature-crafting advice from the master -- don't forget about the eyes, "they're the windows to the soul" -- the group learned all about Gliese 581 g (it's a lot like Remus) and they were split into teams of two.

When contestants signed up to be a part of 'Face Off' (Wed., 10PM on Syfy), a reality show about special effects make-up, we doubt they had any idea they would come face-to-face with some of the animals they saw this week.

The challenge was to create a half-human, half-animal hybrid. That got some of them excited enough, but then host McKenzie Westmore revealed that she had a few surprises for them to help inspire their creativity.

She started off small, with a black beetle, before moving on to an ostrich and, ultimately, an elephant.

There's really nothing unique or inventive about Syfy's new reality competition series 'Face Off' -- except for the monsters, of course.

'Face Off' pits 12 special effects makeup artists against each other in a series of timed challenges. The prize: $1,000,000 and a year's worth of professional makeup supplies.

In the series premiere, airing tonight at 10PM ET on Syfy, a mix of Hollywood pros and up-and-coming artists compete in two different challenges and reveal some spectacular work.

I was a little worried going into this episode, that they had given the best jokes away in the commercials: Stewie running into the glass wall over and over again, Brian rolling him down the steps, Brian painting his ball black. Fortunately, I was very wrong. This was one of the funniest episodes this year, and most of the jokes didn't even come from what we saw in the previews. I think this was actually the episode that I promised to "time" the segues, but with all the commotion around here, you guys are just going to have to wait until next time for that. On with the show!