NBC
Mr. Mayor
When retired Los Angeles businessman Neil Bremer decides to run for mayor of his beloved city, he surprises everyone and wins the seat. With great ideas and commitment to the community, he optimistically sets out to get to work shaking up City Hall. However, he quickly discovers navigating politics is not business as usual. There are opinions to be heard, ribbons to be cut and foods to be eaten — all in support of his fellow citizens. Luckily, he can rely on the know-how of his political-veteran deputy Arpi — whose savvy and ambition make her equal parts friend and foil — and the dedication of his offbeat staff to keep him on the right path, as well as some inspiration from his teenage daughter.
Starring: Ted Danson, Holly Hunter, Bobby Moynihan, Vella Lovell, Mike Cabellon, Kyla Kenedy
Quick Thoughts: Even if this is bad, we’ll always have Holly Hunter fully body tackling Chrissy Teigen. I love them both but that’s such a joyful image.
Premieres January 7th
FOX
Call Me Kat
Based on the BBC UK original series Miranda, the series follows a woman who struggles every day against society and her mother to prove that she can still live a happy and fulfilling life despite still being single at 39.
Starring: Mayim Bialik, Leslie Jordan, Kyla Pratt, Swoosie Kurtz, Cheyenne Jackson, Julian Grant
Premieres January 3rd
Name That Tune
Created by Harry Salter, the one-hour game show tests contestants’ music knowledge, as they battle it out in an assortment of challenging musical games for cash and prizes.
Premieres January 6th
ABC
The Chase
A heart-racing quiz show where three competitors face off against the Chaser, a ruthless quiz genius determined to stop them.
Starring: Sara Haines, James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter
Premieres January 7th
The Hustler
The Hustler breaks the game show mold by featuring one player who secretly already knows the answers. Don’t be fooled. Just because they have a leg up doesn’t mean they’ll be taking home the prize. Each episode follows five contestants as they collaborate to answer a series of trivia questions worth $10,000 each, with the goal of building a collective prize pot that increases with each correct answer. The catch? One of the five contestants, the Hustler, already knows the answers but must keep their identity a secret in order to have a shot at winning the grand prize. Throughout each episode, two contestants are anonymously eliminated by the Hustler, leaving three remaining contestants—the Hustler and two others, who must collectively decide who they think the Hustler is. If they are right, they share the prize pot that could be worth over $100,000. If the two contestants are wrong, the Hustler goes home with the full cash reward.
Starring: Craig Ferguson
Premieres January 7th
Call Your Mother
The series follows an empty-nester mom who wonders how she ended up alone while her children live their best lives thousands of miles away. She decides her place is with her family and as she reinserts herself into their lives, her kids realize they might actually need her more than they thought.
Starring: Kyra Sedgwick, Rachel Sennott, Joey Bragg, Patrick Brammall, Emma Caymares, Austin Crute
Premieres January 13th
CW
Trickster
The series follows Jared, an Indigenous teen struggling to keep his dysfunctional family above water, but when he starts seeing strange things – talking ravens, doppelgängers, skin monsters – his already chaotic life is turned upside down.
Starring: Joel Oulette, Crystle Lightning, Kalani Queypo, Anna Lambe, Joel Thomas Hynes, Craig Lauzon, Gail Maurice, Georgia Lightning
Quick Thoughts: So here’s the thing about this…Trickster is co-created by Michelle Latimer, an Indigenous Canadian filmmaker, who won a lot of film festival accolades for her documentary Inconvenient Indian. Except that no, she is very much not Indigenous. It turns out that Michelle Latimer is white not Algonquin and Métis like she claimed. At the time the news of this (possibly inadvertent) Dolezaling came out, Trickster had just finished airing their first season in Canada. The fallout involved the resignations of Latimer and two other producers. And now having just dumped all of this drama on you, I have to mention that this is based on a novel by an Indigenous author and is apparently very good. Watch it if it appeals to you, just be warned that season 2 might feel different.
Premieres January 12th
Walker
Cordell Walker, a widower and father of two with his own moral code, returns home to Austin after being undercover for two years, only to discover there’s harder work to be done at home. He’ll attempt to reconnect with his creative and thoughtful son and his headstrong, somewhat rebellious teenaged daughter and navigate clashes with his family – an ADA brother who stepped in during Walker’s absence, his perceptive mother and his traditional rancher father Walker’s former colleague is now his Ranger Captain. Walker finds unexpected common ground with his new partner (one of the first women in Texas Rangers’ history), while growing increasingly suspicious about the circumstances surrounding his wife’s death.
Starring: Jared Padalecki, Lindsey Morgan, Keegan Allen, Colby Bell, Kale Culley, Violet Brinson, Mitch Pileggi, Molly Hagan
Premieres January 27th
PBS
American Portrait
This unique crowdsourced series blends stories filmed by everyday people into documentaries revealing what it really means to be American today. It’s the story of what brings us together and what keeps us apart as we strive to understand each other.
Premieres January 5th
All Creatures Great and Small
It’s 1937 and Glasgow is in the grip of depression. James Herriot, fresh out of veterinary college, moves to the magnificent Yorkshire Dales for work, and soon discovers that treating the animals is as much about treating their owners.
Starring: Nicholas Ralph, Samuel West, Anna Madeley, Callum Woodhouse, Rachel Shenton, Dame Diana Rigg, Matthew Lewis
Quick Thoughts: I had to read this in 5th Grade. So much cow medicine. I’m genuinely excited to see if I remember anything that happened in those books.
Premieres January 10th
Miss Scarlet and the Duke
This six-part mystery follows the headstrong, first-ever female detective in Victorian London, who won’t let any naysayers stop her from keeping her father’s business running.
Starring: Kate Phillips, Stuart Martin, Andrew Gower, Kevin Doyle, Ansu Kabia, Cathy Belton
Premieres January 17th
The Long Song
This three-part miniseries based on Andrea Levy’s award-winning novel about the end of slavery in Jamaica follows July, an indomitable, young slave who works on a sugarcane plantation with her detestable mistress, Caroline Mortimer. Their lives change with the arrival of the charming new overseer, Robert Goodwin who sets out to improve the plantation for both the slaves and the mistress.
Starring: Tamara Lawrance, Hayley Atwell, Jack Lowden
Premieres January 31st
BBC America
The Watch
Set in a fictional city where crime has been legalized, The Watch is a genre-busting series that follows a group of misfit cops as they rise up from decades of helplessness to save their corrupt city from catastrophe. Uniquely anarchic and thrillingly entertaining, the character-driven drama follows several of Terry Pratchett’s best-loved creations from his Discworld novels on a riotous and emotional odyssey.
Starring: Richard Dormer, Adam Hugill, Jo Eaton-Kent, Marama Corlett, Lara Rossi, Sam Adewunmi, Ruth Madeley
Premieres January 3rd
Syfy
Resident Alien
Resident Alien follows Harry, an alien that crash lands on Earth and passes himself off as a small-town human doctor. Arriving with a secret mission, Harry starts off living a simple life…but things get a bit rocky when he’s roped into solving a local murder and realizes he needs to assimilate into his new world. As he does so, he begins to wrestle with the moral dilemma of his mission and asking the big life questions like: “Are human beings worth saving?” and “Why do they fold their pizza before eating it?”
Starring: Alan Tudyk, Sara Tomko, Corey Reynolds, Alice Wetterlund, Levi Fiehler
Premieres January 27th
OWN
Belle Collective
Belle Collective centers on the personal and professional lives of five successful, glamorous boss women who are redefining what it means to be a southern belle in Jackson, Mississippi. These dynamic women represent Mississippi’s finest Black female entrepreneurs, determined to break ceilings- glass or otherwise-while shredding the long held stereotypes of the South. They must set aside their differences to redevelop a struggling mid-twentieth century historic district that was once known as the hub for Black-owned businesses.
Premieres January 15th
TBS
Go-Big Show
The Go-Big Show showcases supersized talents on a scale never before seen on television. Featuring monster trucks, alligator and snake trainers, stunt archery, world record holders and other radical feats, the program celebrates daring acts alongside personal, behind-the-scenes stories from the challengers as they battle head-to-head to impress the judges and advance toward the finale’s ultimate $100,000 prize.
Starring: Bert Kreischer, Rosario Dawson, Snoop Dogg, Jennifer Nettles, Cody Rhodes
Premieres January 7th
USA
The Rev
In this hilarious, melodic and inspirational new series, there’s never a dull moment in the world of larger-than-life Pastor Richard Hartley. When he isn’t preaching and inspiring his congregation at his Long Island, NY church, he’s dealing with his rambunctious and loving family… all while utilizing his musical skills to make the church’s choir top notch. Having spent years travelling the globe working with incredible choirs and A-list musicians, Richard is now focused on his hometown choir and, with the help of his wife Stacey, trying to get his millennial children, Judea and Jordan, out of the house so that they can build their own dreams.
Premieres January 21st
HBO
30 Coins
The eight-episode drama series follows Father Vergara, an exorcist, boxer, and ex-convict who is exiled by the church to be the priest of a remote town in Spain. As his past and old enemies come back to haunt him, strange things begin to happen. An unlikely task force forms as Mayor Paco and local vet Elena seek the truth, while reality is distorted by a cursed coin which is at the heart of a global conspiracy.
Starring: Eduard Fernández, Miguel Ángel Silvestre, Megan Montaner
Premieres January 5th
Painting With John
Painting With John, a new unscripted series written, directed by and starring John Lurie, is part meditative tutorial, part fireside chat. Each episode has Lurie, the co-founder of musical group The Lounge Lizards, at his worktable, honing his watercolor techniques and sharing what he’s learned about life. With images of Lurie’s paintings, original music and his point of view all rolled into one, the series strikes an irreverent tone while reminding us to prioritize some time every day for creativity, fun and a bit of mischief.
Premieres January 22nd
Epix
Bridge & Tunnel
Written, directed and produced by Edward Burns, this dramedy series set in 1980 revolves around a group of college grads setting out to pursue their dreams in Manhattan while still clinging to the familiarity of their working-class Long Island home town.
Starring: Sam Vartholomeos, Caitlin Stasey, Gigi Zumbado, Jan Luis Castellanos, Brian Muller, Isabella Farrell, Edward Burns
Quick Thoughts: I really did think Ed Burns was from Boston until I had to write up this entry. I have no idea why. Also Barrett Wilbert Weed is in this so I think I have to watch this because I love her?
Premieres January 24th