Not to be dramatic, but 2026 is the year you've been waiting for no matter what kind of TV you like. So many of the biggest shows are going to be back. So many of your favorite creators have new shows on the horizon. It's gonna be a big year for final seasons too, sadly. Here are the television shows we're looking forward to most in 2026.

We're still waiting on release date information on a lot of anticipated shows, including the final seasons of Outer Banks and Yellowjackets. Plus, new seasons of Nobody Wants This, The Bear, Rivals, Adults, The Gilded Age, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and The Hunting Wives are eminent. It's truly so much. I'm hoping Heated Rivalry's hotly anticipated second season drops in 2026 as expected. I'm also dying for more information about Elle, the Legally Blonde prequel series on Prime Video, as well as the new Netflix adaptation of East of Eden starring Florence Pugh, Mike Faist, and Christopher Abbott.

As for what we already know is on the calendar... it's a lot!

The Pitt Season 2

Release date: January 8, 2026

The Pitt was undoubtedly one of 2025's biggest breakout series. What a thrill that they're already back, eh? Let's go back to a world where shows didn't take 2-3 year gaps between seasons, OKAY?! The real-time day-in-the-life emergency room medical drama might be airing on HBO in the chilly month of January, but the second season takes place on the fourth of July. I don't think it's going to warm us up in a comforting way, unfortunately. There are going to be so many gnarly firework-related burns and injuries coming into the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. Don't you think? I'm grossed out just thinking about it.

The Night Manager Season 2

Release date: January 11, 2026

This is kind of crazy in a "dreams do come true" way. The first season of BBC's The Night Manager aired in the United States on AMC in 2016. The second season will air on Prime Video (and the BBC, ofc) a full decade later. A third season is confirmed too, hopefully before 2036.

The Beauty

Release date: January 16, 2026

All's Fair from Ryan Murphy dominated the conversation even though it got pretty terrible reviews across the board. So I feel safe predicting that The Beauty, Murphy's upcoming series on FX/Hulu that has a grotesque science fiction premise, will make a lot of noise as well. It has The Substance vibes. Need I go on?

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Release date: January 18, 2026

House of the Dragon returns to HBO this year too, but my eyes are on this new Game of Thrones spin-off that looks... like a comedy? What? Levity in my Westeros? Interesting.

Wonder Man

Release date: January 27, 2026

Personally, the Marvel show that I am most looking forward to is VisionQuest, the third installment in the "loose trilogy" following WandaVision and Agatha All Along. There's also the second season of Daredevil: Born Again coming to Disney+ in March. But until then, we get to meet Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams a.k.a. Wonder Man in a meta MCU comedy!

Bridgerton Season 4

Release date: January 29 (Part 1); February 26 (Part 2)

An Offer from a Gentlemen fans, your time is now. Bridgerton years just feel a little more magical than other years, don't you think? The new season will depict the dramatic, Cinderella-inspired romance between Benedict Bridgerton and Sophie Baek. Get ready for twists, turns, tragic miscommunication, and so much yearning before they get it together. (Poor Eloise really is losing friends and siblings to marriage left and right!)

The XXV Milan-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympic Games

Release date: February 6, 2026

I can't lie and pretend that for two weeks every other year, the only programming I care about is the Olympics. This is my show, especially when it comes to the Winter Olympics. It's time to pretend I've kept up with figure skating and know anything about curling and luge. What if, after closing out 2025 with Heated Rivalry, we all get into actual hockey? Could be fun...

The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins

Release date: February 23, 2026

NBC is getting into the heartwarming sports comedy game (Ted Lasso and Chad Powers are the blueprint, obvs) with a cheerleading series called Stumble and this new show from Tina Fey and Robert Carlock. It stars Tracy Morgan, Erika Alexander, Bobby Moynihan, and Daniel Radcliffe. Morgan plays a disgraced NFL player. Radcliffe plays the documentarian tasked with rehabilitating his image. Shenanigans ensue, I must imagine.

How to Get to Heaven from Belfast

Release date: February 2026

New show from the creator of Derry Girls on Netflix! Say literally no more.

Outlander Final Season

Release date: March 6, 2026

Claire and Jamie have earned a happily ever after, don't you think? No more droughtlanders. No more tragedy. The time-traveling couple has been separated and reunited so many times over the course of the Starz series. The eighth and final season will presumably adapt the ninth book, Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone. Without getting too much into what happens in that book and how it ends, this season could be a shocker.

The Boys Final Season

Release date: April 8, 2026

This is going to be a big one. While the season is only eight episodes long, Prime Video is releasing them weekly so people will be talking about The Boys well into May. The final season ended with Homelander basically controlling the President of the United States and declaring martial law. However, the resistance has some new recruits as of the season 2 finale of Gen V, so the pieces are set for an action-packed final season.

Widow's Bay

Release date: April 29, 2025

This is a comedy/horror series coming to Apple TV+ about a New England mayor, played by Matthew Rhys, who refuses to believe his town is haunted. The creator is Katie Dippold, who is not only the writer of Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, The Heat, and The Haunted Mansion (2023) but also the person who infamously dressed as the Babadook to go to a grown-ups drinking wine party. You think about her every Halloween. You can trust her to spook you in April!

The Testaments

Release date: April 2026

Watching a sequel series to The Handmaid's Tale, based on a novel that Margaret Atwood wrote relatively recently in 2019, might feel stressful in 2026. Do we really want to escape to Gilead right now? That said, the new Hulu series also has a very intriguing cast, including One Battle After Another breakout Chase Infiniti, Girl Meets World star Rowan Blanchard, and actor/director Amy Seimetz.

Euphoria Season 3

Release date: April 2026

It will have been four years since season 2 aired on HBO and HBO Max. The third (and we have to imagine final) season will start with a significant time jump, allowing the now adult ensemble of actors to play their own ages. We don't know much else about Euphoria season 3 besides that. Trust the process?

Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat

Release date: Summer 2026

Also known as Interview with the Vampire season 3, if you're new and need to know what to search for on AMC/AMC+ or Netflix to catch up. I'm simply too excited to not carve out a space for it on this list, even though "summer" could mean as early as May or as late as August. The first two seasons, which star Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid as the vampires Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt, respectfully, adapted the first novel in Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles. This season will primarily adapt the second, and dig into Lestat's traumatic past. Meanwhile, in the present, the so-called "Brat Prince" makes a hard pivot from hermit to rockstar for reasons that are unknown but not unappreciated.