LOS ANGELES, September 10 — The story begins with a list, and a confession. Variety published its Fall TV Preview on September 9, cataloguing the most anticipated new and returning shows of the season, and it opened by conceding that “peak TV is over” even as it pointed to “an embarrassment of riches across television.” At its heart, the preview is a map of a medium in transition — fewer shows, but the ones arriving are large.
Among the entries the magazine flagged as still needing catching up: “Furious” on Hulu, “Sterling Point” on Prime Video, HBO’s “Lanterns,” and Netflix’s “My Brilliant Career.”
The season already underway
September had barely begun when the list landed. Season 2 of “The Gentlemen” and FX’s “The Drop: A Snowfall Saga” had already premiered in the month’s first days, and Variety’s rundown is explicitly not exhaustive. Netflix’s “Pride & Prejudice” remake, starring Emma Corrin as Lizzy Bennet, has not been dated.
Network shows including CBS’ “Matlock” and ABC’s “High Potential” will premiere midseason. For those involved in the network calendar, the confirmed dates cluster tightly.
Fox pairs “Best Medicine” and “Doc” on Sept. 22. CBS brings “Marshals” and “Tracker” on Oct. 4. “Abbott Elementary” returns for Season 6 on Oct. 7, the same night as the One Chicago shows.
“Law & Order: SVU” and “Law & Order” follow on Oct. 8, then ABC’s “9-1-1,” “9-1-1: Nashville” and “Grey’s Anatomy” on Oct. 15. NBC’s “St. Denis Medical” Season 3 and “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins” Season 2 arrive Nov. 2.
One premiere that will dominate the discourse
Then there is the outlier. HBO’s “Harry Potter” series will premiere at Christmas — technically winter, as Variety notes — but the preview includes it anyway because it is expected to be one of the year’s biggest pop culture events and will fuel discourse around J.K. Rowling.
Elsewhere on the dated slate: “South America” — formerly “South Park” — premieres Sept. 16 on Comedy Central after an Emmys win and a Trump-mocking name change. The docuseries “Jay-Z in 8” premieres Sept. 18 but missed the inclusion cutoff.
“Reasonable Doubt” Season 4 arrives on Hulu on Oct. 6. Netflix’s Omar Sy-starring “Lupin: Part 4” returns Oct. 23, its first season since 2023. “Black Doves” Season 2, starring Keira Knightley, drops Nov. 5.
“Tulsa King” Season 4 premieres on Paramount+ on Oct. 16, and “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” Season 3 returns to Disney+ on Nov. 20.
Among the September 10 entries: Hulu’s “TSLOMW” returns for a five-episode fifth season with Taylor Frankie Paul; the third and final season of a Paramount+ romantic comedy premieres, picking up after Gordon’s proposal to Ashley, with Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer; and Netflix’s YA rowing drama debuts, following 16-year-old competitive rower Teagan Tao (Miku Martineau), who joins a prestigious East Coast school’s dysfunctional boys’ varsity crew as coxswain after a family scandal. The preview also mentions “Below,” in which Josh Hartnett plays a small-town fisherman battling a sea monster.
What to watch next is less a single show than a mood. The fall slate is thinner than the peak-TV years, but the marquee titles are heavier — and the Harry Potter premiere, whenever the Christmas lights go up, will test whether a franchise can still command the room.
