Fall television shifts into high gear this week, bringing one of the busiest stretches of premieres on the calendar. After several weeks of scattered launches, this is the week when the broadcast schedule finally starts looking familiar again. CBS is bringing back some of its biggest franchises, beginning with FBI and CIA on Monday before handing Tuesday night over to the NCIS trio of shows. NBC follows with the return of the entire One Chicago lineup on Wednesday and Law & Order on Thursday. By Friday, CBS is back in Edgewater with Sheriff Country and Fire Country before Boston Blue returns for its second season.
There are plenty of other reasons to keep the remote close, too. Abbott Elementary opens another school year, Elsbeth is back solving wonderfully eccentric murder mysteries, and several new shows are looking to earn a permanent place on viewers’ weekly schedules. In other words, clear some space on the DVR. Fall TV is officially back.
Sunday, October 4: A Final Warm-Up Before Premiere Week
Sunday is something of a calm before the storm, although the calendar is hardly empty. The Simpsons, Animal Control and Grimsburg are among the returning options, while the premieres of Tracker and Marshals on CBS gives fans something to look forward to. Still, Sunday is mostly the appetizer. Beginning Monday, the fall schedule becomes considerably more crowded.
Monday, October 5: FBI and CIA Launch CBS Premiere Week
CBS wastes no time getting Premiere Week underway. FBI returns for its ninth season with Maggie Bell and the New York field office facing another dangerous case, but there are changes within the team as well. The new season picks up after the events that changed OA’s position within the team, leaving Maggie partnered with newcomer Isaiah Green. Meanwhile, CIA‘s Nikki Reynard crosses over into the FBI premiere. It should make for an interesting reset. Maggie and OA have been one of the show’s central partnerships for years, so temporarily disrupting that familiar rhythm gives the premiere an opportunity to explore how both agents operate when circumstances force them onto different paths.
At 9/8c, CIA begins its sophomore season with “The Deep.” The series continues to follow by-the-book FBI agent Bill Goodman and the much more unpredictable CIA operative Colin Glass as they work together on a covert CIA/FBI task force in New York. This time, the crossover works in the opposite direction, with FBI‘s Stuart Scola joining the CIA team for an operation. It’s a smart way to reintroduce both series while making CBS’ new Monday pairing feel connected without requiring viewers to treat the episodes as one continuous crossover.
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| Photo: Mark Schafer/CBS ©2026 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
The CW welcomes some familiar private investigators to a new coast with the series premiere of Private Eyes West Coast. The Private Eyes spinoff reunites Jason Priestley and Cindy Sampson as Matt Shade and Angie Everett, who have traded Toronto for Victoria, British Columbia, where they’re now married and raising their young son. Their supposedly quieter life doesn’t last long: premiere episode “Changing Tides” finds a date night interrupted by a murder, with a woman arrested for killing her boyfriend. Convinced she’s innocent, Shade and Angie are soon doing what they do best and finding themselves pulled back into investigative work.
Also joining The CW’s Monday lineup is the U.S. Season 2 premiere of Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent. Aden Young and Kathleen Munroe return as Detective Sergeants Henry Graff and Frankie Bateman, investigating high-profile homicides inspired by Canadian headlines. In the premiere, “White Squirrel City,” the outspoken leader of a Toronto encampment is found stabbed to death in a downtown park. As Graff and Bateman investigate the victim and the people around him, evidence suggests his death may have involved a swarming.
Tuesday, October 6: Welcome to NCIS Night
If Monday belongs to the FBI, Tuesday belongs entirely to NCIS. CBS is devoting three consecutive hours to the franchise, combining its long-running flagship, a brand-new spinoff and the increasingly confident NCIS: Origins.
Twenty-four seasons is remarkable territory for any television series, but NCIS enters its latest chapter with a familiar face helping make the premiere feel like an event. The flagship series returns at 8/7c as the team deals with another threat while continuing to navigate the personal fallout left behind by last season. More importantly for longtime fans, Tony DiNozzo is back in Washington, bringing Michael Weatherly back into the orbit of the mothership. After more than two decades, NCIS has become particularly good at using its history rather than running away from it. Bringing Tony back while continuing the stories of the current team gives Season 24 a chance to bridge different eras of the franchise.
At 9/8c comes the week’s biggest franchise launch: NCIS: New York. The new series brings LL COOL J’s Sam Hanna back to the NCIS universe, this time in his hometown of New York. Scott Caan joins him in the new drama, which is aiming for a grittier New York identity while still retaining the procedural DNA that has kept the franchise alive for more than two decades. Using Sam as the bridge is a clever choice. He’s already deeply familiar to NCIS: Los Angeles fans, but placing him in a completely different city with a new team means NCIS: New York doesn’t have to feel like simply another continuation of Los Angeles. The big question is whether this team can establish its own chemistry quickly enough to become the next long-term branch of the franchise.
The night concludes at 10/9c with NCIS: Origins. Season 3 returns to young Leroy Jethro Gibbs and the Camp Pendleton team in the aftermath of last season’s car crash, with the new episodes digging further into the formative experiences that shaped the Gibbs audiences would eventually meet on NCIS. With only an 8 episode order, it will be interesting to see how the storyline unfolds in such a shortened time span.
Wednesday, October 7: One Chicago Is Back
Wednesday might be the most competitive night of the entire week. ABC premieres Abbott Elementary. The calendar also includes Slow Horses, Scrubs and Ted Lasso. But for most viewers, October 7 means one thing: One Chicago is back.
Chicago Med gets things started at 8/7c with “Shots Fired,” and the title isn’t exaggerating. Gunfire at a wedding sends chaos spilling into Gaffney’s Emergency Department, giving the doctors and nurses an immediate crisis to manage. At the same time, Goodwin is fighting to keep her job, while Hannah faces an important decision during her maternity leave. That’s a lot to throw at the characters in an opening hour, but Med has always worked best when personal turmoil collides with a large-scale emergency. Season 12 appears ready to begin with both.
At 9/8c, the doors of Firehouse 51 open again for Chicago Fire‘s 15th season. Fifteen seasons is an impressive milestone, but there are changes coming. The new season will have to navigate departures and shifting roles at 51 while continuing the mixture of spectacular rescues and deeply personal stories that has made Fire the centerpiece of the Chicago franchise.
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| Photo by: Lori Allen/NBC |
Then Voight and Intelligence take over at 10/9c. Season 14 arrives with significant changes ahead for the unit, including the upcoming departure of longtime Intelligence member Kevin Atwater. LaRoyce Hawkins is expected to appear in the opening episodes as the series brings Atwater’s story to a close. That alone gives the beginning of the season additional emotional weight. Atwater has been part of Chicago P.D. from the beginning, and how the series handles his exit could have consequences for the entire Intelligence dynamic.
Meanwhile, Abbott Elementary returns to ABC with “Jungle Classroom,” which finds Gregory and Ava adjusting to a new dynamic while Barbara asks Jacob for help. Janine gives her classroom a makeover, while Melissa is determined to win hers back.
Finally, just in time for Halloween season, Prime Video revisits one of Stephen King’s most famous stories with Mike Flanagan’s eight-episode adaptation of Carrie. Summer H. Howell takes on the role of Carrie White, whose father’s sudden death thrusts her into public high school, where she faces bullying amplified by the pressures and cruelty of the social-media age. At the same time, Carrie begins discovering the mysterious telekinetic abilities growing alongside her adolescence.
Thursday, October 8: Law & Order Returns While CBS Offers Plenty of Competition
Law & Order: SVU begins Season 28 and the original Law & Order returns for Season 26. The sheer longevity of these shows is easy to take for granted. Olivia Benson and the Special Victims Unit remain a fixture of NBC’s schedule nearly three decades after SVU premiered, while the mothership continues the familiar investigation-and-prosecution format that helped redefine the network procedural.
Over on CBS, one of television’s most unconventional investigators returns. Carrie Preston is back as Elsbeth Tascioni for Season 4, once again using the attorney’s unusual observational skills and relentless curiosity to uncover killers alongside Captain Wagner and the NYPD’s 11th Precinct. CBS is promising new cases, new faces and new challenges for Elsbeth and Wagner this season.
CBS adds some supernatural comedy to Thursday nights with Eternally Yours, from Ghosts creators Joe Port and Joe Wiseman. Ed Weeks and Allegra Edwards star as Charles and Liz, a vampire couple whose once-passionate relationship has fallen into an understandably deep rut after 500 years of marriage. Their eternal routine is disrupted when their daughter Emma’s very human boyfriend Max enters their lives and discovers what her unusual family really is.
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Photo: Bertrand Calmeau/CBS ©2026 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
Meanwhile, fans of The Good Wife, The Good Fight, Evil and Elsbeth have another Robert and Michelle King series to check out this week. Cupertino stars Mike Colter and Rachel Keller as Michael Price and Olivia Siffre, two lawyers who are wrongfully terminated from a Silicon Valley tech startup. Rather than quietly accepting defeat, they join forces to create a law firm representing people who have been taken advantage of by the tech elite. The David-versus-Goliath legal drama gives the Kings a new arena to explore power, money and institutional corruption, while also reuniting them with Evil star Colter. Busy Philipps, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Ella Stiller and Nik Dodani round out the ensemble.
Finally, rounding out this packed night of premieres, Netflix heads into much darker territory with Below, a six-part thriller set against the striking and increasingly terrifying coastline of Newfoundland, Canada. Josh Hartnett stars as Calvin Penney, a fisherman still haunted by his father’s mysterious death decades earlier. When an unidentified sea creature begins terrorizing his small hometown, Calvin teams up with a visiting marine researcher, played by Mackenzie Davis, to uncover what’s lurking beneath the water while trying to protect his son Wade, played by Stranger Things‘ Charlie Heaton, and the community around them. Blending creature horror, local mythology, family drama and mystery, Below could be a particularly good pick for viewers looking for something appropriately unsettling as Halloween approaches.
Friday, October 9: Back to Edgewater
Friday brings the return of both Sheriff Country and Fire Country, followed by Season 2 of Boston Blue.
Morena Baccarin returns as Sheriff Mickey Fox in the Season 2 premiere, “Cyclone.” Mickey is still processing a shocking revelation about her family when she’s pulled into a dangerous case involving a troubled young woman. What begins as an attempt to save her ultimately exposes a criminal operation that could pose a much larger threat to Edgewater.
At 9/8c, Fire Country returns with an emergency worthy of a season premiere. “Founders’ Day” begins with Edgewater celebrating its annual community festival when a catastrophic sinkhole suddenly opens beneath Main Street, trapping residents underground and sending Station 42 into a major rescue operation. Meanwhile, the arrival of a mysterious former firefighter introduces another complication. Season 5 also introduces Olivia Thirlby as Cecilia “CJ” Ryan, a decorated urban firefighter who arrives at Station 42 without the wildland experience that defines much of the crew’s work.
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Photo: Seacia Pavao/CBS ©2026 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
The week concludes with Boston Blue returning at 10/9c. The Blue Bloods spinoff continues Danny Reagan’s life away from New York as he settles further into the Boston Police Department, works alongside Detective Lena Silver and becomes increasingly connected to the Silver family’s own multigenerational law-enforcement legacy. Donnie Wahlberg and Sonequa Martin-Green are once again at the center of the series, with Danny’s relationship with son Sean giving the show another connection to the Reagan family story that powered Blue Bloods for so many years.
Fall TV Has Arrived
There are busy television weeks, and then there are weeks like October 4-9. For fans who have spent the last several months waiting for their favourite characters to come home, this is the week the fall season finally feels complete. Of course, the biggest problem now is an appropriately television-obsessed one: there simply aren’t enough hours in the week to watch everything live.
What are you watching this week? Which returning favorite are you most excited about, and which new shows will earn a place on your weekly schedule? Let us know in the comments.