From 'House of the Dragon' to 'Wednesday,' here's what you should check out this fall.
The fall television season is in full swing!
With a plethora of TV options to go to on streaming, as well as on cable and network television, there's an overwhelming wealth of choices when it comes time to figure out what to watch when you sit down in front of your television, computer screen or phone.
From long-running favorites (Grey's Anatomy, NCIS) to buzzworthy shows (House of the Dragon, The White Lotus) to farewell runs (The Good Fight, Atlanta) to franchises you may already be familiar with (Anne Rice's Interview With a Vampire, Andor), there's truly something for everyone's palette.
So, with a packed fall TV lineup, just what new and returning shows are worth checking out? We highlight 14 of the most exciting shows to watch through November or to keep on your radar as fall TV officially kicks off!
Abbott Elementary (ABC)
Premieres: Wednesday, Sept. 21 at 9 p.m. ET/PT
Key cast: Quinta Brunson, Tyler James Williams, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Janelle James and Lisa Ann Walter
Season 2 of Abbott Elementary is already off to a great start. The breakout comedy won three Emmys, boasts an impressive guest star lineup -- including Leslie Odom Jr. and Lauren Weedman -- and promises an exciting school year for our favorite teachers. When asked what fans can look forward to in the next installment, newly-minted Emmy winner Quinta Brunson said the new season will give viewers more chances to “fall in love” with the characters. “We spent the whole first season building, showing what this show is capable of, and now we get to have some fun,” she told reporters at San Diego Comic-Con. “We’ve done all the building, and now we get to have some of these fun bottle episodes, what I call Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episodes -- some episodes you’ll learn a lot and some you won’t, you’ll just fall more in love with the characters.” — Mekishana Pierre
Alaska Daily (ABC)
Premieres: Thursday, Oct. 6 at 10 p.m. ET/PT
Key cast: Hilary Swank, Jeff Perry, James Lesure, Britt Robertson, Kevin Zegers and Grace Dove
Hilary Swank plays Eileen Fitzgerald, an award-winning investigative journalist who accepts an offer from a daily metro newspaper in Anchorage looking for answers after a series of Indigenous women have disappeared without a trace. She takes the job after a high-profile fall from grace in New York City, and appears to arrive in search of her own redemption alongside her quest for professional justice. Created by Tom McCarthy, the man behind the 2015 Academy Award-winning film Spotlight, Alaska Daily promises to take another exciting glimpse into the beating heart of investigative newsrooms. — Zoe Phillips
Andor (Disney+)
Premieres: Wednesday, Sept. 21
Key cast: Diego Luna, Stellan Skarsgård, Fiona Shaw and Genevieve O’Reilly
Described as “a tense nail-biting thriller,” the two-season prequel series leading up to 2016's Rogue One follows spy Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) during the formative years of the Rebellion as Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) and others set out to “restore hope to a galaxy in the grip of a ruthless Empire.” “It is really cool to tell a story where you already know the ending," Luna told ET about the series ending where the Star Wars film picks up. “It is a different approach, because it's how things happen. It's not just what happens. It's not the typical way of approaching a story.” — Stacy Lambe
Atlanta (FX)
Premieres: New episodes Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT
Key cast: Donald Glover, Brian Tyree Henry, LaKeith Stanfield and Zazie Beetz
The end is here and it’s taking us back to the place it all started. Atlanta’s final season brings our core foursome back to their stomping grounds to bring to rights a roller coaster of a story. There’s no way to predict what we’re going to get with this farewell season -- you never know what you’re gonna get with this series. But hopefully, in a good way. — M.P.
CSI: Vegas (CBS)
Premieres: Thursday, Sept. 29 at 10 p.m. ET/PT
Key cast: Marg Helgenberger, Paula Newsome, Matt Lauria and Mandeep Dhillon
Soon after original stars William Petersen and Jorja Fox exited CSI: Vegas following one season, it was announced that CSI favorite Marg Helgenberger was reprising her beloved character, Catherine Willows, for the sophomore installment. Questions linger about what Catherine's been up to, and in the season 2 premiere, those answers start to come out as she reintegrates herself back onto the CSI team. "We're really lucky to have her back and personally, I'm overjoyed," CSI: Vegas star Matt Lauria told ET. "She's just a complete class act, very generous, very genuine person." Aside from Catherine's anticipated return, season 2 aims to pick up loose threads hinted at in the finale, of yet another serial killer on the loose. "The images that you see at the very end of the episode, teasing where we might go in season 2... were something that me and Craig O'Neil... have had kicking around in our mind for a long time," showrunner Jason Tracey told ET. "It's a story that would be sprinkled in and lightly serialized. But there's a big, complicated web of plot that can spin out from just those few seconds that you see at the end of the finale." — Philiana Ng
High School (Amazon Freevee)
Premieres: Friday, Oct. 14
Key cast: TikTok personalities Railey and Seazynn Gilliland, Cobie Smulders and Kyle Bornheimer
Tegan and Sara’s teenage years serve as the inspiration for Freevee’s original series, High School, which is adapted from the band’s 2019 memoir by executive producers and co-showrunners Clea DuVall and Laura Kittrell. Set against the backdrop of the 1990s’ rave and grunge culture, the LGBTQ dramedy will weave together parallel and discordant memories of two sisters growing up down the hall from each other. “This is not, like, a goofy, surface-y show about sisters who fight over clothes. Like, this is our story. It is about identity and it is about depression and it is about drugs and alcohol and it is about sex and it is about homophobia,” Sara told ET. — S.L.
House of the Dragon (HBO)
Premieres: New episodes Sundays
Key cast: Matt Smith, Paddy Considine and Olivia Cooke
Game of Thrones is back as the HBO franchise rewinds the clock hundreds of years in time to explore the political intrigue and personal dramas of House Targaryen in an all-new series adapted from George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood. The prequel, which is packed full of blood, dragons, incest and intrigue, finds the ruling house amid an intense battle of succession after the king fails to secure his line’s place on the throne with a male heir. But that is only the beginning of this saga, with Smith teasing to ET that “[King’s Landing] is a pretty deadly, dangerous place” and the Targaryens are “a tricky family to be part of.” — S.L.
The Idol (HBO)
Premieres: November
Key cast: Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye, Lily Rose-Depp, Troye Sivan and Dan Levy
Though the trailer doesn’t give much away, according to HBO's description of the enigmatic series, The Idol comes direct “from the sick and twisted minds of [Euphoria creator] Sam Levinson and The Weeknd," who are here to tell a story that will be hard to look away from. The tale follows a self-help guru turned cult leader who starts a complicated relationship with a growing pop idol. — Z.P.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Prime Video)
Premieres: New episodes Fridays
Key cast: Benjamin Walker, Charles Edwards, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Morfydd Clark and Robert Aramayo
Set thousands of years ahead of the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Rings of Power will explore a time of peace and prosperity as life unfolds during the Second Age. Led by showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, season 1 follows Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), who is on the hunt for any remaining traces of evil despite a lack of concern over Sauron’s possible return to Middle-earth. “It is a time of absolute abundance, cultural explosion,” Dylan Smith told ET, with Markella Kavenagh adding that as the series unfolds and evil emerges, “You see characters who are struggling with inner conflict, and you see communities come together in the face of adversity.” — S.L.
Monarch (Fox)
Premieres: New episodes Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT
Key cast: Susan Sarandon, Trace Adkins, Anna Friel, Joshua Sasse and Beth Ditto
Monarch isn't taking any prisoners. Fox's country music soap follows the Roman family, headed by the talented but tough-as-nails "queen of country music" Dottie (Susan Sarandon) and her husband, "Texas Truthteller" Albie (Trace Adkins). The couple has created a country music dynasty, but even though the Roman name is synonymous with authenticity, the very foundation of their success is a lie. When their reign as country royalty is put in jeopardy, heir to the crown Nicolette "Nicky" Roman (Anna Friel) will stop at nothing to protect her family's legacy, while ensuring her own quest for stardom. A huge Dottie twist at the end of the first episode (we won't spoil it here!) and an intriguing murder mystery leaves a mountain of possibilities for where the story could take the Roman family. Country music stars Shania Twain, Martina McBride, Little Big Town and Tanya Tucker add star power as they're all set to cameo throughout the season. — P.N.
Quantum Leap (NBC)
Premieres: Monday, Sept. 19 at 10 p.m. ET/PT
Key cast: Raymond Lee and Ernie Hudson
A modern-day update of the classic '90s sci-fi drama, the new Quantum Leap sees Kevin Can F**k Himself's Raymond Lee taking the leap (and mantle) from Scott Bakula's Dr. Sam Beckett nearly 30 years later as physicist Ben Song. A new team, led by Ben, has assembled to restart the Quantum Leap accelerator project in the hopes of understanding the mysteries behind the machine and the man who created it. Everything changes, however, when Ben makes an unauthorized leap into the past, leaving the team behind to solve the mystery of why he did it. As they scramble to solve the mystery of Ben’s leap and try to successfully bring him home, they must act fast or lose him forever. "History, a lot of times, has the answers. So, it's important for us to feel comfortable at times when it's very uncomfortable. A show like this has such a loving fanbase and the themes are so relevant to what's happening in the world now," Lee told ET. "I feel like it is a soothing balm, a salve for perhaps all of the chaos that is happening outside. I hope this show can be that to the world now." — P.N.
Tulsa King (Paramount+)
Premieres: Sunday, Nov. 13
Key cast: Sylvester Stallone, Andrea Savage, Martin Starr, Vincent Piazza and Garrett Hedlund
New York mafia capo Dwight “The General” Manfredi (Sylvester Stallone) has just finished his 25-year prison sentence when he heads to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in search of a new crew. Without backing from his old mob family, Dwight is forced to build connections with an unlikely group of characters in an attempt to build a new crime empire -- this time from scratch. Tulsa King comes from the same creators as Yellowstone and 1883, offering a similar level of neo-Western grit and frontier drama. “You’re probably going to see, for better or worse, who I am,” Stallone, who steps into his first series regular TV role, told ET in June. “What would it be like if Sylvester Stallone... just became a gangster?" — Z.P.
Wednesday (Netflix)
Premieres: November
Key cast: Jenna Ortega, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Luis Guzman, Gwendoline Christie and Christina Ricci
The new Wednesday Addams series is coming just in time for spooky season. Netflix's Wednesday, which stars Jenna Ortega as the titular heroine, promises to peel back the layers on the iconic character, braided pigtails and all, and tell her story through a new lens. In the Tim Burton-produced series, Wednesday attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the local town and solve the supernatural mystery that embroiled her parents, Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Gomez (Luis Guzman), 25 years ago -- all while navigating her new and tangled relationships at Nevermore. "It's kind of an interesting world and perspective to see her in and the thing about Wednesday is we’ve never seen her onscreen for such a long period of time. She’s always been the one-line joke," Ortega told ET. "So, I think it’s really interesting doing an eight-episode series and creating a deeper emotional arc for her and giving her a bit more range than she has had previously." Ricci, who played Wednesday in the '90s films, is back in the universe as an undisclosed new character. — P.N.
The Winchesters (The CW)
Premieres: Tuesday, Oct. 11 at 8 p.m. ET/PT
Key cast: Meg Donnelly, Drake Rodger and Jensen Ackles (narrator)
The Winchester saga continues on with the Supernatural prequel series, The Winchesters, which returns Jensen Ackles to the fold as Dean. More than a year after hanging up his boots, the longtime franchise star narrates the new one-hour drama chronicling the untold love story of Sam and Dean's parents, John and Mary, played here by Drake Rodger and Meg Donnelly, respectively. The Winchesters promises to keep within the DNA of what made Supernatural so successful for 15 seasons with an injection of newness as the focus shifts away from the brothers and to the two who brought them into this world. It'll also be a family affair as Ackles serves as an executive producer alongside his wife, actress Danneel Ackles. — P.N.
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