Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers viewing tips for midseason.
After one of the more successful fall TV seasons in recent years — ABC’s “High Potential” and CBS’s “Matlock” were both critical and commercial hits — broadcast networks prepare a spate of new shows for the new year.
ABC
“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (8 p.m. Jan. 2, WTAE) returns in a new iteration hosted by The Home Edit co-founders Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin.
To save money on programming costs, ABC will rerun several series from sister-streaming service Hulu including season two of “Only Murders in the Building” (9 p.m. Jan. 2), “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” (10 p.m. Jan. 27) and “Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini” (10 p.m. Jan. 30).
ABC’s Thursday night lineup will take an extended break with “9-1-1,” “Doctor Odyssey” and “Grey’s Anatomy” not returning until March 6.
A specific premiere date in March for the final season of “The Conners” was not announced.
New primetime series include:
“Shifting Gears” (8 p.m. Jan. 8): Tim Allen returns as a widower who owns a car restoration shop. His estranged daughter (Kat Dennings, “2 Broke Girls”) and her children move into his house. Allen is in “Last Man Standing” mode as a conservative crank but what makes “Gears” work is his sparring with Dennings, who holds her own against the sitcom veteran and gives as good as she gets. When he complains about hearing Nancy Pelosi on the news, she replies, “Yeah, ugh, it’s annoying the way she’s trying to save democracy.”
“Scamanda” (9 p.m. Jan. 30): Long-delayed ABC News docu-series adaptation of a podcast about a woman who faked having cancer.
Returning: “Will Trent” (8 p.m. Jan. 7), “The Rookie” (10 p.m. Jan. 7), “Celebrity Jeopardy!” (9 p.m. Jan. 8), “The Bachelor” (8 p.m. Jan. 27), “American Idol” (9 p.m. March 9), “The $100,000 Pyramid” (10 p.m. March 9).
CBS
“Hollywood Squares” (8 p.m. Jan. 9, KDKA-TV): Drew Barrymore and Nate Burleson star in a new prime-time version of the classic, celebrity-stacked game show.
“Watson” (10 p.m. Jan. 26): Dr. Watson (Morris Chestnut) opens his Holmes Clinic in Pittsburgh following the death of his best friend, Sherlock. Investigations of medical mysteries by a crew of “doc-tectives,” per Chestnut, follow. “Watson” airs in its regular time period, 9 p.m. Sunday, starting Feb. 16.
Returning: “The Price Is Right at Night” (8 p.m. Jan. 8), “Raid the Cage” (9 p.m. Jan. 8), “NCIS: Sydney” (8 p.m. Jan. 31), “Survivor” (8 p.m. Feb. 26), “The Amazing Race” (9:30 p.m. March 5). Original episodes of most of CBS’s scripted weekday prime-time shows resume the week of Jan. 27; Sunday shows are back in originals Feb. 16.
NBC
“The Hunting Party” (10 p.m. Feb. 3, WPXI): Killers escape prison, get tracked by a small team of investigators.
“The Americas” (7 p.m. Feb. 23): Tom Hanks narrates a 10-part natural history wildlife docuseries.
“Suits LA” (9 p.m., Feb. 23, WPXI): Stephen Amell (“Arrow”) stars in this spin-off of the legal drama that originated on USA and gained new life last year on Netflix.
“Grosse Pointe Garden Society” (10 p.m. Feb. 23): Suburban garden club members share the secret of a murder.
In addition, NBC airs a prime-time 50th-anniversary special for “Saturday Night Live” Feb. 16.
Returning: “Deal or No Deal Island” (8 p.m. Jan. 7), “The Voice” (8 p.m. Feb. 3).
Fox
“Going Dutch” (9:30 p.m. Jan. 2, WPGH): Jerky U.S. Army Col. Quinn (Denis Leary) gets reassigned to the least important U.S. Army base in the Netherlands where his daughter (Taylor Misiak, “Dave”) is also stationed. Leary plays an angry guy, as usual, and while some of the geopolitical commentary proves cutting, the father-daughter relationship tussle is pretty much the sitcom pabulum you’d expect.
“Doc” (9 p.m. Jan 7): Chief of internal medicine Amy (Molly Parker) suffers a brain injury that erases her previous eight years of memories. Based on an Italian series, Amy comes across as a bit frosty and brusque initially, but viewers soon learn what made her that way. It’s an intriguing start to the series but the beats that follow flow predictably from the show’s premise.
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“Extracted” (8 p.m. Feb. 10): 12 untrained competitors attempt to survive in the wild.
In a worrying sign for the future of freshman drama “Rescue: Hi-Surf,” returning with new episodes Jan. 20, Fox moved the show out of its plum-for-sampling post-“SuperBowl LIX” time period, replacing it with an episode of “The Floor.”
Returning: “Hell’s Kitchen” (8 p.m. Jan. 2), “Animal Control” (9 p.m. Jan. 2), “Kitchen Nightmares” (8 p.m. Jan. 7), “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” (8 p.m. Jan. 8), “The Masked Singer” (8 p.m. Feb. 12), “The Floor” (9 p.m. Feb. 12), “Next Level Chef” (8 p.m. Feb. 13).
The CW
“Good Cop/Bad Cop” (9 p.m. Feb. 19, WPNT): Leighton Meester (“Gossip Girl”) and Luke Cook (“The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”) star as sibling detectives who have a strained relationship with their police chief father (Clancy Brown).
Returning: “Police 24/7” (8 p.m. Jan. 23), “Crime Nation” (9 p.m. Jan. 23), “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” (8 p.m. Jan. 24), “Masters of Illusion” (9 p.m. Jan. 24), “All American” (8 p.m. Jan. 29), “Wild Cards” (8 p.m. Feb. 5).
PBS
Pittsburgh-based Fred Rogers Productions’ “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” kicks off the new year with new episodes Jan. 6-9 at 9 a.m. on WQED-TV. The first new episode introduces Mr. Plat, the platypus father of Daniel’s friend Jodi. Mr. Plat does not live with Jodi’s mom or her siblings, a chance to show families can come in many different forms and an opportunity for some young viewers to see their families represented on TV.
“NOVA” asks “What Are UFOs?” (9 p.m. Jan. 22), explores the construction of a new LaGuardia in “Extreme Airport Engineering” (9 p.m. Jan. 29) and investigates what went wrong in March’s “Baltimore Bridge Collapse” (9 p.m. Feb. 26).
Henry Louis Gates Jr. hosts “Great Migrations: A People on the Move” (9 p.m. Jan. 28) about Black migration throughout American history and “American Experience” details the creation of “The NAACP and its Architects” (9 p.m. Feb. 25).
“Chautauqua at 150: Wynton Marsalis’ All Rise” (10 p.m. Feb. 11) celebrates the Western New York cultural institution.
“Masterpiece” debuts the final installment of its adaptation of author Hilary Mantel’s “Wolf Hall” books, which traces Thomas Cromwell’s rise to power in the court of Henry VIII. In “Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light” (9 p.m. March 23), Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis return in the roles they originated in 2015.
“Masterpiece’s” “Miss Austen” (May 4) reimagines Cassandra Austen’s burning of sister Jane’s letters as a story of sisterly love.
Returning: “Vienna Blood” (10 p.m. Jan. 5), “Antiques Roadshow” (8 p.m. Jan. 6), “Finding Your Roots” (8 p.m. Jan. 7), “Lucy Worsley Investigates” (9 p.m. Jan. 7), “Miss Scarlet” (8 p.m. Jan. 12), “All Creatures Great and Small” (9 p.m. Jan. 12), “Funny Woman” (10 p.m. Feb. 2) and “Call the Midwife” (March date TBD).