TV Preview 2026: The 20 Shows We Can’t Wait to See

There’s something for everyone, from new seasons of ‘The Pitt’ and ‘The Traitors’ to Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis in ‘Scarpetta’

Thom Geier,

AARP

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Published January 07, 2026

a collage with actors in tv shows the pitt the night manager and the traitors

(L-R): The Night Manager; The Pitt (2); The Traitors

AARP (Courtesy Everett Collection, 4)

The new year is here with a tantalizing crop of dramas, comedies and reality-based shows on traditional networks as well as streaming services like Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max and Apple TV. Here’s a guide to 20 must-watch series launching in the coming months.

Best Medicine (Fox, Jan. 4)

In a new series that recalls the quirky ’90s drama Northern Exposure, a big-city physician sets himself up in a small rural community full of eccentrics. The Good Wife alum Josh Charles, 54, plays a gruff Boston surgeon who’s oddly queasy at the sight of blood and insists on setting boundaries in a town where everybody knows one another and fences are discouraged.

His & Hers (Netflix, Jan. 8)

In this six-part thriller, Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead) and Tessa Thompson (Creed) play an estranged couple who each have a connection to a shocking murder in her sleepy Georgia hometown. He’s the former detective with the local sheriff’s office, and she’s a TV news anchor — both chase clues while suspecting that the other may be a suspect .

The Pitt, Season 2 (HBO Max, Jan. 8)

One of last year’s biggest hits, The Pitt marked the return of Noah Wyle, 54, to a hyperrealistic medical drama and earned five Emmys, including outstanding drama series. Ten months have elapsed since the events of the first season, which broke down a single prolonged day in a teaching hospital ER into 15 hour-long, real-time increments. In the workday tracked in the second season, Wyle’s Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch harbors unrealistic plans to leave early for a hard-earned sabbatical — considering that it’s the Fourth of July and resident Frank Langdon (Patrick Ball) is just back after months in rehab.

The Traitors, Season 4 (Peacock, Jan. 8)

Alan Cumming, 60, trots out a whole new wardrobe for the fourth season of this addictive reality competition series featuring B- and C-list celebrities backstabbing each other in and around a Scottish castle. This time, the competitors include Real Housewives Lisa Rinna, 62, and Brandi Glanville, 53, former Olympians Tara Lipinski and Ryan Lochte, and other familiar faces from the small screen, including actor Michael Rapaport, 55, and Top Chef host Kristen Kish.

The Night Manager, Season 2 (Prime Video, Jan. 11)

While 2016’s award-winning first season was a faithful adaptation of the late John Le Carré’s 1993 novel, the show is charting new territory in its second season. Tom Hiddleston’s Jonathan Pine is a former British intelligence operative now living under the radar — until a chance sighting of an old nemesis draws him back into the world of international intrigue.

Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials (Netflix, Jan. 15)

It was only a matter of time before Agatha Christie got a 21st-century update. Chris Chibnall, 55, the creator of the beloved British crime series Broadchurch, offers a new spin on Christie’s 1929 novel about a country house party that turns deadly. The unlikely detective who steps in to crack the case is Lady Eileen “Bundle” Brent (Mia McKenna-Bruce).

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (Paramount+, Jan. 15)

What better way to spice up the Star Trek franchise than by setting a new series at the school that trains the next generation of Starfleet officers powering all those Enterprises and Voyagers? The faculty includes grownup stars Holly Hunter, 67, and Tig Notaro, 54, but the focus is on the young cadets who boldly and bawdily go where no Star Trek franchise has gone before.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (HBO, HBO Max, Jan. 18)

If you’re tired of hyper-serious fantasy epics, this adaptation of George R.R. Martin novellas may be just your speed. Set between the events of House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones, the show follows a low-level “hedge” knight named Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) and his bald-headed young squire, Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell). Who doesn’t love an underdog whose earnestness is matched by his dry wit?

Memory of a Killer (Fox, Jan. 26)

Grey’s Anatomy veteran Patrick Dempsey (60 on Jan. 13), is back in a high-concept new series about a man with a double life: a photocopier salesman in upstate New York by day and a cold-blooded hitman by night. To raise the stakes, he’s also been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s, which makes it more challenging for him to recognize threats from his past and to protect his pregnant daughter.

Wonder Man (Disney+, Jan. 27)

In Stan Lee’s original comic, the alter ego of superhero Wonder Man is named Simon Williams and has a cover story that he’s an actor. In this six-episode limited series, Williams (Aquaman alum Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is a struggling actor with hidden superpowers who’s hired to play Wonder Man in a movie. More fun spins: The film’s eccentric director (Zlatko Burić, 72) ominously vows “to make the last movie on Earth.” Get ready for a hot new take from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Bridgerton, Season 4 (Netflix, Jan. 29)

The Bridgerton clan’s bohemian and stubbornly single second-born, Benedict (Luke Thompson), is finally getting his shot at love. True to this zippy spin on Regency romance from Shonda Rhimes, 55, Benedict meets his match at a masquerade ball where resourceful maid Sophie (Yerin Ha) tries to fulfill her Cinderella ambitions.

American Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette (FX, Hulu, Feb. 13)

Few couples have been put under the public microscope as intensely as John F. Kennedy Jr., who grew up in the White House until his father’s 1963 assassination, and the fashion publicist Carolyn Bessette, who married the scion back in the last century. In the latest fact-based anthology series from prolific producer Ryan Murphy, 60, we follow the couple (played by Paul Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon) and their bumpy relationship through their tragic death in a private-plane crash in 1999.

The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins (NBC, Peacock, Feb. 23)

SNL and 30 Rock veteran Tracy Morgan, 57, returns to NBC in a promising new comedy about a disgraced former NFL star who teams up with an award-winning documentary filmmaker (Daniel Radcliffe) to rehabilitate his image. Look for this show to get an avalanche of promotion during NBC’s telecast of the Winter Olympics.

Scrubs (ABC, Hulu, Feb. 25)

Noah Wyle is not the only doc pulling his stethoscope out of storage. Zach Braff, 50, Donald Faison, 51, and Sarah Chalke return for a reboot of the 2000s hospital comedy, where they now help train a new group of interns at fictional Sacred Heart Hospital.

Y: Marshals (CBS, Paramount+, March 1)

Taylor Sheridan, 55, extends his Yellowstone franchise to broadcast TV with an intriguing spin-off featuring Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes), the youngest child in the Montana ranching clan from the original series. Now the character puts his experience as a cowboy and a Navy SEAL to work in a new setting: an elite unit of the U.S. Marshals.

Scarpetta (Prime Video, March 11)

Over the course of 29 best-selling novels by Patricia Cornwell, 69, perfectionist forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta has cracked many a complex case. She makes the leap to TV in a new series that unfolds in two different timelines: In the present, Scarpetta (Nicole Kidman, 58) and former detective Pete Marino (Bobby Cannavale, 55) investigate a grisly murder that seems to have connections to a case from their early days on the job in the ’90s, where their characters are played by Rosy McEwen and Jake Cannavale (Bobby’s real-life son). Jamie Lee Curtis, 67, a series coproducer with Kidman, plays Scarpetta’s older sister.

The Count of Monte Cristo (PBS, March 22)

Revenge is a dish best served on PBS over eight lushly produced episodes. In a beautifully filmed new adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel, Sam Claflin (Daisy Jones & the Six) stars as the young sailor Edmond Dantès, who is wrongly imprisoned but manages to escape, dig up a vast fortune and embark on an elaborate plot to take down his enemies. Jeremy Irons, 77, costars as the wise old priest who mentors Edmond.

Margo’s Got Money Troubles (Apple TV, April 15)

One of the year’s most buzzed-about new series is David E. Kelley’s adaptation of Rufi Thorpe’s 2024 novel, starring Elle Fanning as Margo Millet, a 20-year-old single mom who turns to OnlyFans to support herself. The cast is first-rate: Michelle Pfeiffer, 67, as Margo’s former Hooters waitress mom, Nick Offerman, 55, as her ex–pro wrestler dad, and Nicole Kidman, 58, as the mediator negotiating child support and coparenting duties with Millet’s baby daddy and former English professor (Michael Angarano).

Blade Runner 2099 (Prime Video, TBD)

The bioengineered android replicants of the Blade Runner franchise don’t seem so far-fetched in the AI-driven present. So it will be intriguing to see how this sequel series, set a half century after the underrated 2017 movie Blade Runner 2049, will imagine our future. Plot details are scant so far, but we’re drawn to any show starring Oscar-winning powerhouse Michelle Yeoh, 63.

The Savant (Apple TV, TBD)

This hot-button new show about the roots of domestic terrorism stars Jessica Chastain as a suburban mom and digital watchdog who infiltrates online networks of white supremacists and other extremists. The series, inspired by a true story, got extra attention when Apple TV delayed its premiere last September just days after the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.

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Thom Geier is an AARP contributor and the award-winning former executive editor of TheWrap, senior editor at Entertainment Weekly, film reporter at The Hollywood Reporter and associate editor at U.S. News & World Report.