We conclude our look at the new fall season with Friday’s amazing slate of shows, which is an empty set this year.
Category / Television
2026 New Fall Season – Thursdays
Thursday night was traditionally the busiest night of the week for my television viewing habits but has fallen off over the past couple of years. This year is no exception. Here’s what’s on the slate for this season.
7:00
9-1-1 – Returning for its tenth season, and its fourth on ABC.
Scrabble – The board game-based show returns for another go-around.
8:00
Trivial Pursuit – LeVar Burton returns for a third season hosting the show based on the classic board game.
9:00
Cupertino – A Silicon Valley law drama that has some interesting stars, so I may give it a shot.
Grey’s Anatomy – The medical drama enters its 23rd season.
2026 New Fall Season – Wednesdays
We have reached the halfway point of our look at the offerings for the new fall season. The cupboard once again looks pretty bare for Wednesdays.
2026 New Fall Season – Tuesdays
Continuing our look at the new fall season, here are the offerings that I may find myself interested in for Tuesdays.
8:00
Doc – A surprise hit, Molly Parker returns for a third go-around, trying to regain her memories while regaining her life.
2026 New Fall Season – Mondays
We continue our annual look at the new fall season with Monday night’s offerings, another night that has nothing even halfway intriguing, a position that has held pretty steady since 2018.
2026 New Fall Season – Sundays
It is time once again to start our annual dive in to the new fall lineups for the upcoming television season. As has become normal in the last couple of years, there is nothing interesting among the networks’ Sunday night offerings, which means I might have some time to work through some of the streaming shows I’ve let pile up. Or work through the growing backlog on my DVR.
Gone Too Soon
Less than two months ago, after finishing her memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning, I said of Hayden Panettiere:
Hopefully, as she approaches her forties, she’s able to maintain her family relationships and her career.
Unfortunately, she will never get that chance. Panettiere died Sunday just days shy of her 37th birthday.
Panettiere was a child star, making her first on-screen appearance in a Playskool commercial at eleven months old. I first was introduced to her work in 2001 when, at the age of 12, she joined the cast of Ally McBeal for its final season. From there, she would star on Heroes and Nashville on television and movies such as Scream 4 and I Love You, Beth Cooper.
Panettiere is survived by her daughter, who will turn 12 in December, and her parents, with whom she had a complicated relationship. Her younger brother died in 2023.
Lie To Me
A little over two months since the death of Nicholas Brendon, another cast member of Buffy the Vampire Slayer has shuffled off this mortal coil. Anthony Stewart Head died yesterday at the age of 72 due to complications from pneumonia, according to a statement released by his daughters. His longtime partner, Sarah Fisher, passed away in December.
Head found international fame as Rupert Giles in the hit supernatural show in the late 1990s. More recently, he had starred as Rupert Mannion, the ex-husband of Hannah Waddingham’s character on Ted Lasso. He first found fame in the UK in the 1980s as the face of a series of Nescafe commercials and was also known for his roles in Doctor Who, Merlin, and Little Britain.
Head is now the third main member of the Buffy cast to pass away, following Brendon in March and Michelle Trachtenberg last February. He is survived by his two daughters.
Post Mortem – Poker Face
Peacock decided against a third season of Poker Face, the Columbo-like procedural from Rian Johnson. Natasha Lyonne starred as Charlie, an accidental sleuth who has the uncanny ability to tell when anyone is lying to her. An attempt to keep the show going at another streamer, with Peter Dinklage taking over the lead role, but, more than six months later, that thankfully does not seem to be happening.
Post Mortem – Based On A True Story
The Peacock series Based on a True Story, starring Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina as a married couple who start a podcast with a serial killer, was cancelled last year following its second season. The show certainly had its moments and brought in interesting guest stars, so I was a little surprised to see it wrapped up so early. But, that is the nature of streaming and I’m sure Cuoco will pop up in something new sooner rather than later.