Fall television is right around the corner, and we have to admit: we are so ready. It is not that we are not enjoying the shows currently on our screens. We are! But there is something about fall TV that just hits differently. It means returning to the characters we have loved, defended, cried over, and watched religiously season after season. It means getting new shows to obsess over, new ships to root for, and entirely too many reasons to rearrange our evenings around a television schedule.
Fall television is fun. Fall television brings joy. And no, we will not be accepting judgment for getting excited about it.
As September reaches its halfway point, our nights are slowly starting to fill up again—with returning favorites, fresh premieres, and the kind of television that has us checking calendars, setting reminders, and making sure no one talks to us during the important scenes.
Tonight, the fall TV season officially begins for us with Dancing With the Stars. Season 35 kicks off with a two-night premiere on Tuesday, September 15, and Wednesday, September 16, airing at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+ before streaming on Hulu the next day. The first night features the male celebrity contestants, while the women take the ballroom floor on night two—and yes, an elimination is scheduled for each night.
But Dancing With the Stars is only the beginning. Whether you are counting down the days until your favorite characters return, looking for a new show to add to your weekly rotation, or simply ready to spend more nights curled up on the couch yelling at your TV, there is a lot to look forward to this month.
You may be asking what else we are excited to watch in September. Or you may not care at all, and honestly, that is completely valid too.
Either way, here is everything we are looking forward to this September.
Tuesday, Sept. 15
Dancing With the Stars (ABC)
There is just something about watching people dance that immediately puts a smile on our faces. Maybe it is the sparkly costumes, the dramatic music, the judges’ reactions, or the fact that every week gives us another reason to yell at our television—but Dancing With the Stars always manages to bring the fun.
What we love most is watching the celebrities learn. Not everyone walks into the ballroom with dance experience, but they show up, put in the work, let themselves have fun, and prove that you really can do anything when you are willing to take a chance and commit to it. There is something genuinely special about watching someone go from nervous first steps to owning the ballroom a few weeks later.
Season 35’s lineup includes actors, athletes, reality stars, musicians, a celebrity chef, and more—so there is truly someone for everyone to root for. Harry Shum Jr. and Jenna Johnson, Jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy, Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov, and Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas are only a few of the pairings entering the ballroom this season.
The full cast list is below, along with each celebrity’s pro partner. Tell us: who do you think is taking home the Mirrorball Trophy?
THE CONTENDERS
- Reality TV star Maura Higgins with Mark Ballas
- Actress Julia Stiles with Ezra Sosa
- Reality TV star Sarah Jane Nader with Hailey Bills
- Reality TV star Ciara Miller with Brandon Armstrong
- Olympic figure skater Amber Glenn with Pasha Pashkov
- Actress Jenna Dewan with Val Chmerkovskiy
- Celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis with Alan Bersten
- Actress Tatyana Ali with Jan Ravnik
- Reality TV star Tyler Cameron with Sharna Burgess
- Paralympian Ezra Frech with Daniella Karagach
- Singer Taylor Hanson with Britt Stewart
- Reality TV star Conner Leavitt with Adele Zaikman
- Baseball player and influencer Jackson Olson with Emma Slater
- Jimmy Kimmel Live star Guillermo Rodriguez with Witney Carson
- Actor Harry Shum Jr. with Jenna Johnson
- Influencer and comedian Connor Wood with Rylee Arnold
Friday, Sept. 18
Outlander: Blood of My Blood (Starz)
We have been devoted Outlander fans for years, so the idea of getting even more drama, romance, heartbreak, kilts, complicated family dynamics, and gorgeous Scottish Highlands? Yes, please. Sign us up immediately.
Outlander: Blood of My Blood returns for its second season on Friday, September 18, following the love stories of Jamie Fraser and Claire Beauchamp’s parents. The series moves between two eras: the battlefields of World War I and 18th-century Scotland, where two fated couples are forced to fight against the people, circumstances, and history determined to keep them apart. Because this is the Outlander universe, we already know that nobody is getting an easy road to happiness.
The central romances follow Brian Fraser and Ellen MacKenzie—the future parents of Jamie Fraser—as well as Henry Beauchamp and Julia Moriston Beauchamp, who will become Claire’s parents. It is a story about love across time, family legacy, impossible choices, and the kind of yearning that Outlander fans have come to expect from this world.
The thing we love about a prequel like this is that it does not just give us more Scotland—which, let’s be honest, would be reason enough to watch. It gives us the chance to meet the people whose love, loss, sacrifices, and secrets helped shape Jamie and Claire long before either of them existed. There is something so emotional about seeing familiar last names and realizing that the history we thought we knew still has so much more to reveal.
Jamie Roy, Harriet Slater, Jeremy Irvine, Hermione Corfield, Rory Alexander, Sam Retford, Séamus McLean Ross, and Conor MacNeill all return for the new season.
The season-two premiere, Remembrance Day, arrives September 18, with new episodes releasing weekly on Fridays through Starz.
Monday, Sept. 21
10 p.m.: Line of Fire (NBC)
We do not think there is a new fall show we are looking forward to more than Line of Fire. A family drama centered on federal agents—working across the Secret Service, U.S. Marshals Service, FBI, and Department of Justice—who become tangled in a deadly conspiracy? That is already a yes from us. Hard yes.
Then you add Peter Krause and Hope Davis to the mix? An even bigger yes. You don’t have to ask us twice.
Line of Fire follows the Hollingsworth family, a family of federal law-enforcement agents who must navigate their personal history, professional boundaries, and very dangerous cases. What begins as a seemingly straightforward investigation turns into a much larger conspiracy, forcing the family to work together to protect one another and bring a dangerous assassin to justice—even if it means crossing lines they never expected to cross.
Krause stars as Secret Service agent Mike Hollingsworth, while Davis plays U.S. Marshal Jane Hollingsworth. Their children are also embedded in the world of federal law enforcement, with roles spanning the FBI, Secret Service, and Department of Justice. So yes, this is a procedural, but it is also a family drama in the best way possible. People with complicated relationships being forced to work together while trying to save the day? Don’t threaten us with a good time.
And that combination is exactly what has us excited. We love a good procedural. We love a family drama/thriller that promises twists, danger, and weekly cliffhangers. Put all of those things together, and suddenly we are clearing our Monday nights. Appointment TV scheduled.
Krause has described the series as a “suspense-thriller, family-drama-comedy,” which sounds like exactly the kind of chaotic, emotional, high-stakes television we want in our lives this fall.
Line of Fire premieres Monday, Sept. 21, at 10 p.m. ET on NBC. New episodes will air Mondays and stream on Peacock the following day.
Tuesday, Sept. 22
8 p.m.: Best Medicine (Fox)
We love a small town. We love someone who is absolutely convinced that they do not belong in that small town. And we really love when the people around them slowly—but stubbornly—help them realize that maybe they are exactly where they are supposed to be.
That is why Best Medicine is one of the shows we are looking forward to returning this fall.
The series follows Dr. Martin Best, a brilliant surgeon who gives up his successful career in Boston to become the general practitioner in Port Wenn, Maine, the fishing village where he spent summers as a child. He may know how to solve practically any medical mystery, but talking to people? Making them feel comfortable? Pretending to care about their small-town drama? Not exactly Martin’s strengths.
Martin is blunt. He is awkward. He can be kind of rude. And he would very much like everyone to leave him alone so he can do his job and go home.
Unfortunately for him, Port Wenn is filled with quirky people, complicated relationships, random emergencies, and the kind of town gossip that makes it impossible to keep anything private. Martin may want to stay out of everyone’s business, but everyone’s business has a habit of finding him anyway.
What makes the show work is that Martin’s attitude is not just because he is grumpy. He is dealing with a debilitating blood phobia, deep emotional issues, and a fear of letting people get close to him. He is great at taking care of everyone else, but he is not very good at allowing people to take care of him.
And we are suckers for that.
There is something comforting about a story where a community sees through someone’s walls and refuses to give up on them. Martin may not want Port Wenn to become home, but the town has clearly decided that he belongs there. Whether he likes it or not.
Best Medicine returns for Season 2 on Tuesday, Sept. 22, at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. It will be followed by Doc at 9 p.m.
9 p.m.: Doc (Fox)
Not every medical drama grabs our attention, but Doc absolutely has. There is something about Dr. Amy Larsen’s story that keeps pulling us back in—especially because Amy may not remember much of her past, but everyone around her does. And that makes every conversation, every relationship, and every secret feel like it is just waiting to explode.
Amy’s memory loss is not simply the show’s hook and it is what makes the drama so emotionally messy. After a brain injury erased the last eight years of her life, Amy has to navigate a hospital, friendships, family relationships, former patients, and a divorce from a man she does not remember choosing to leave. Meanwhile, the people in her life are carrying the full weight of everything she cannot recall.
And that is why we stay invested. Every time we think we understand where a character stands, another secret appears. Someone is hiding something. Someone knows more than they are saying. Someone is trying to protect Amy—or perhaps protect themselves from what Amy might remember. The show has made us care about the entire ensemble, because everyone is dealing with the fallout of Amy’s lost memories in a different way.
Last season gave us plenty of relationship drama, with couples coming together, falling apart, and making choices that left us with even more questions. Going into the new season, we are especially curious about Amy’s journey toward reclaiming a sense of herself—and whether Michael can finally pull himself together. Amy’s former husband, Dr. Michael Hamda, has had the difficult task of loving someone who no longer remembers the life they built together, and that emotional complication is never simple.
Season 3 also promises more uncertainty around Amy and Dr. Ben Grant. The new trailer teases Amy experiencing unsettling flashbacks connected to Ben, a relationship that remains complicated because Amy does not remember their history.
Doc returns for Season 3 on Tuesday, Sept. 22, at 9 p.m. ET on Fox, following Best Medicine at 8 p.m. New episodes will be available on Hulu the next day.
But we shall see.
Thursday, Sept. 24
We will be the first to admit it: we watched the original A Different World, and we loved it. It gave us characters we cared about, relationships we were invested in, stories that made us laugh, and moments that made us think. So the idea of returning to Hillman College—but through a new generation of students? We are here for it.
The new A Different World is not trying to erase what made the original special. Instead, it expands the universe and lets a new group of students make Hillman their own. And honestly, that is exactly how a revival should work. Give us nostalgia. Give us familiar faces. But also give us new characters, new stories, and something that speaks to the students watching now.
The 10-episode single-camera comedy-drama centers on Deborah Wayne, the free-spirited, rebellious youngest daughter of Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert. Deborah arrives at Hillman College wanting to be her own person, but that is easier said than done when your parents are two of the school’s most iconic alumni. She is trying to step out of their shadow, figure out who she is, and create a legacy that belongs to her—not just the one she inherited.
And that is a story we can get behind.
Deborah is played by Tony Award winner Maleah Joi Moon, who leads a new freshman class at the fictional HBCU. The sequel will blend the warmth and humor fans remember from the original series with issues that matter to this generation, including mental health, student activism, and threats to HBCU funding.
Of course, it would not feel like A Different World without familiar faces returning to campus. Kadeem Hardison is back as Dwayne, Jasmine Guy returns as Whitley, Cree Summer reprises her role as Freddie, and Darryl M. Bell returns as Ron. Seeing them come back gives the new series that emotional connection to the show we loved, while also reminding us that Hillman’s story did not end when the original series did.
There is something especially sweet about the premiere date, too. The sequel arrives on Netflix on September 24, 2026—exactly 39 years after the original A Different World debuted on NBC on September 24, 1987.
We are ready to go back to Hillman.
What are you looking forward to seeing this September? What show can’t you wait to see?
