The only constant is change.
Some brilliant soul made that observation, but there’s nothing TV Fanatics have ever disliked more than schedule changes, even if those changes bring about new shows for you to love or reunite you with favorites absent too long.
Let’s take a look at what changes are afoot and get your opinion on what’s ahead. Your opinion matters and helps drive what we cover here at TV Fanatic!
ABC
Up first is Milo Ventimiglia’s new show, The Company You Keep.
The logline is: A night of passion leads to love between con man Charlie (Ventimiglia) and undercover CIA officer Emma (Good Trouble‘s Catherine Haena Kim), who are unknowingly on a collision course professionally.
While Charlie ramps up the family business so he can get out for good, Emma’s closing in on the vengeful criminal who holds Charlie’s family debts in hand — forcing them to reckon with the lies they’ve told so they can save themselves and their families from disastrous consequences.
Next is Not Dead Yet, starring Gina Rodriguez.
Logline: From creators David Windsor and Casey Johnson and starring Rodriguez, Not Dead Yet follows Nell Serrano (Rodriguez), a broke and newly single self-described disaster, working to restart the life and career she left behind 10 years ago.
When she lands the only job she can find – writing obituaries, Nell starts getting life advice from an unlikely source.
The series is adapted from the book “Confessions of a 40-something F**k Up” by Alexandra Potter.
Up next is Will Trent, based on the series of books by Karin Slaughter (it’s about time she gets a TV series!), starring Ramon Rodriguez.
Logline: Special Agent Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI) was abandoned at birth and endured a harsh coming-of-age in Atlanta’s overwhelmed foster care system.
But now, determined to use his unique point of view to make sure no one is abandoned like he was, Will Trent has the highest clearance rate in the GBI.
Which midseason ABC show are you most excited about?
CBS
CBS doesn’t have much to offer, as they’re pretty happy with their schedule.
Survivor returns, and the show sure has its fans.
The new addition to their lineup is True Lies, based on the long-ago film that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis.
The new incarnation stars Steve Howey and Ginger Gonzaga in a breakneck adaptation of Oscar-winner James Cameron’s big-screen classic.
Logline: CBS’s True Lies is the saga of an unremarkable suburban homemaker who discovers her unremarkable computer-consultant husband leads a remarkable double life as an international spy.
The reveal of this shocking secret puts Helen, Harry, and their kids in grave jeopardy, forcing Helen to work alongside Harry on his missions. The anything-but-unremarkable adventure that ensues shakes up the Tasker’s marriage as it shakes up the international world of espionage.
Which midseason CBS show are you most excited for?
FOX
From FOX, we have the midseason return of the second in their hot 9-1-1 franchise, Lone Star, and the long-awaited return of Fantasy Island, which has been pushed season by season until now.
The first of two new shows (both one word and beginning with A, oddly enough), is Accused. Here are the official details:
A crime-thriller comes from Emmy Award-winning producer Howard Gordon, the co-creator of landmark television, such as Homeland, and the showrunner of 24, Accused is a collection of 15 intense, topical, and exquisitely human stories of crime and punishment.
Each episode is a fast-paced provocative thriller exploring a different crime, in a different city, with an entirely original cast.
Based on the BBC’s BAFTA-winning crime anthology, each episode opens in a courtroom on the defendant, with viewers knowing nothing about their crime or how they ended up on trial.
Told from the defendant’s point of view through flashbacks, the show holds a mirror up to current times with evocative and emotional stories.
In the end, audiences will discover how an ordinary person gets caught up in extraordinary circumstances and how one impulsive decision can impact the course of that life – and the lives of others – forever.
Accused fearlessly takes on the hottest topics of our time and features cinematic auspices and production values anchored by Oscar and Emmy-winning talent.
Stars include Michael Chiklis, Abigail Breslin, Whitney Cummings, Margo Martindale, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Wendell Pierce, Rachel Bilson, Jack Davenport, Molly Parker, and directors Billy Porter, Marlee Matlin, Tazbah Chavez, and Michael Chiklis.
Alert stars Scott Caan and Dania Ramirez.
Alert is a procedural drama about the Philadelphia Police Department’s Missing Person’s Unit (MPU).
Each episode features a heart-pounding, life-or-death search for a missing person that runs alongside Jason Grant and Nikki Batista’s series-long quest to find out the truth about their long-lost son.
Which midseason FOX show are you most looking forward to?
NBC
And finally, we arrive at NBC. They’ve got The Blacklist returning and Magnum PI joining the lineup after CBS unceremoniously dumped the IP they had owned for decades.
Two new shows join the schedule, including Found. Here are the details as found on NBC.com.
The premise of Found is chilling, shining a spotlight on the harrowing statistic that in any given year, more than 600,000 people are reported missing in the U.S. Of these reported cases, more than half of the missing people are people of color, too easily neglected by the system.
Shanola Hampton stars as Gabi Mosely, a former missing person herself, who now specializes in PR and leads a crisis management team that seeks out these missing people. But unbeknownst to anyone, Mosely is hiding a dark secret of her own.
In addition to Hampton, the Found cast includes Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Kelli Williams, Brett Dalton, Gabrielle Walsh, Arlen Escarpeta, and Karan Oberoi.
The other new show coming to NBC is Night Court, a revival of the original that aired from 1984 to 1992.
Harry Anderson, who has since passed away, played Judge Harry T. Stone, and in the revival, Melissa Rauch plays his daughter, Abby, now the municipal night court judge.
Rauch is joined by John Larroquette, who presumably reprises his role as Dan Fielding.
The show will continue the antics of the municipal night court.
Which midseason NBC show are you most looking forward to watching?
I’m sure you noticed that we are not considering The CW a viable player in the broadcast world at this time. Our hunch is that they’ll take a much different direction, so we’ll wait to see their plans.
Overall, the midseason roster is rather light, but we want to make sure that if there’s something you think we should cover, we’re on it!
Make your voices heard in the polls above and in the comments below.
Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She’s a member of the Critic’s Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on Twitter and email her here at TV Fanatic.