After what seems like an eternity of thankless guest spots on “Glee,” Kristin Chenoweth makes her long awaited return to ABC, where she once starred in “Pushing Daisies.” This time, she plays starring character Carlene Cockburn in the new dramedy “GCB.” The show follows a select group of affluent women in Dallas who love money and material things almost as much as they love Jesus. As one character puts it in the promo, “God often speaks to me through Christian Dior.” It’s basically like a scripted version of “The Real Housewives” in Texas. Paging Bravo, why isn’t there a “The Real Housewives” series that takes place in Dallas?

“GCB” has undergone multiple title changes. Once titled “Good Christian B*tches,” that name attracted controversy from both Christian and women’s groups. ABC decided to call it “Good Christian Belles,” but that was a horrific name. That was then abbreviated to “GCB,” because acronyms are all the rage. I personally think they abbreviated it so it could be verbally referred to as the first title without offending anybody.

“GCB” also stars Leslie Bibb (Mrs. Ricky Bobby in “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby”) as Amanda Vaughn, who is returning to Dallas for the first time since high school, and ’80s icon Annie Potts (“Designing Women”) as her gun-toting mother. Jennifer Aspen, Miriam Shor and Marisol Nichols round out the rest of Carlene’s “GCB” gang. It has pedigree, too: head writer Robert Harling also wrote “Steel Magnolias,” and the executive producer is Darren Starr, creator of “Sex and the City.” If it seems like a natural successor to the finally concluding “Desperate Housewives,” that’s because it is. The promos promise the same caustic dialogue and sexy tone with a Texas twist.