Image via CBS
Published Jul 9, 2026, 11:36 AM EDT
Christine is a freelance writer for Collider with two decades of experience covering all types of TV shows and movies spanning every genre. With a particular affinity for dramas, true crime, sitcoms, and thrillers, if it's a top TV show, Christine has likely watched it and is eager to share her thoughts. When she's not furiously writing away, you can find her enjoying the next binge obsession with a glass of wine in front of the TV.
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The fall 2026 TV schedule is giving us a lot to look forward to at the end of summer. Along with shows coming in mid-season like Einstein, Ghosts, Matlock, and NCIS: Sydney, and ones concluding the summer like Big Brother, there are tons of long-running shows returning, new shows coming back for another season, and brand-new shows to get excited about.
If you're wondering what to watch and when, we have you covered. The primetime hours will be dominated by police procedurals and crime dramas, along with reality shows and news programs. There's no denying that if you're interested in procedural-type shows or thrilling and addictive reality competition series, CBS is the place to go this fall.
'60 Minutes' Season 59 (1968–Present)
Sundays, 7:00 p.m.
Image via CBSThere will be a lot of eyeballs on 60 Minutes for its 59th season, given the shake-up behind the scenes leading up to it. Considered to be one of the best news magazine shows and one of the best TV shows of all time, 60 Minutes is typically split into three parts, including interviews, on-the-scene segments, and deep dives into various topics, led by a team of talented hosts.
Ahead of the new season, long-time correspondent Scott Pelley was reportedly fired after complaining about the new management. Correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega will also not be returning. Several weeks later, longtime producer Henry Schuster announced he was leaving. Fans are curious how the show will look as it returns with a very different team leading the charge.
'Marshals' Season 2 (2026–Present)
Sundays, 8:00 p.m.
Image via CBSSet to air in a prime timeslot, the Yellowstone spin-off and sequel is back for its second season. In the neo-Western police procedural Marshals, Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes), one of the best characters from Yellowstone, is now working with a specialized group of U.S. Marshals, their goal to protect Montana.
As the fourth series in the growing Yellowstone franchise, several other actors reprise their roles from that show, making it a must-watch for fans. Season 1 received mixed reviews, and while it doesn't hold up to the original, Season 2 could be where Marshals hits its stride and finds its own voice.
'Tracker' Season 4 (2024–Present)
Sundays, 9:00 p.m.
It's tough to believe that Tracker is already in its fourth season. The action drama exploded on the scene, delivering a compelling story focused on a singular protagonist. Justin Hartley is Colter Shaw, a skilled survivalist who takes on missing persons cases across the U.S., working privately for reward money. He has a team providing tech and investigative support and helping to suss out cases. But Colter is the focus of the show.
Tracker has taken some wild swings through the seasons so far, touching on unique cases, diving into the mystery of Colter's father's death, and switching themes from sci-fi to horror, supernatural, and more from one episode to the next. It's one of those comforting, formulaic shows you look forward to seeing every week.
'FBI' Season 9 (2018–Present)
Mondays, 8:00 p.m.
Image via CBSContinuing in its new Monday timeslot, FBI keeps the procedural fun going. The Dick Wolf series is set in the FBI office in New York, following the agents who work to keep the city safe. Featuring an ensemble cast, FBI tackles all sorts of cases, from potential terrorist attacks to organized crime, and more.
FBI continues CBS' domination in the genre, providing crime-fighting from the perspective of this particular organization. Yes, the formula is familiar if you're used to Wolf's work and the typical procedural format. But that's what makes it reliable, consistent viewing for the primetime hours.
Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz
Which Action Hero Would Be
Your Perfect Partner?
Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
🎭Ethan Hunt
FIND YOUR PARTNER →
01
You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart. DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we're walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can't follow. BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won't explain until it's needed. EBy whatever means are available — I've driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I've reloaded. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation. DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you've had all week.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost. BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven't thought of yet. EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we're there. BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. EFind the one thing they haven't accounted for — there's always one thing — and make sure we're holding it.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there. BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I'd do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I'm out — they don't leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had.
ATechnology that shouldn't exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it's been tested. CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up.
NEXT QUESTION →
09
Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down. EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked.
NEXT QUESTION →
10
It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn't ending. Then we move. BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. CA plan I don't fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next. ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that's who they've always been.
REVEAL MY PARTNER →
Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
Your partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know.
James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
John McClane
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
'CIA' Season 2 (2026–Present)
Mondays, 9 p.m.
Image via CBSIt was only a matter of time before a show centered around the CIA was introduced. The aptly named CIA hails from Dick Wolf as well, and it combines police procedural with buddy cop style. Colin Glass (Tom Ellis) is a CIA case officer who likes to play by his own rules. Bill Goodman (Nick Gehlfuss) is an FBI special agent who could have written the rulebook. Naturally, when these two work together, they clash.
A spin-off of FBI, CIA received lukewarm reception. But it may just be that the series is still trying to find its footing. A fun odd couple-type story with a crime drama twist, CIA's top-notch timeslot, led in by FBI, could help it gain more attention this fall.
'NCIS' Season 24 (2003–Present)
Tuesdays, 8:00 p.m.
Image via CBSKeep the procedural feel going with NCIS, which returns for its 24th season this fall as one of the longest-running crime TV shows. The military police procedural follows agents of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), providing a unique spin from the usual.
Starting as a spin-off of JAG, NCIS has far surpassed that show, becoming one of the longest-running scripted live-action American primetime series. With no signs of slowing down despite cast changes over the years and one spin-off that only lasted a single season, NCIS is an anchor show for CBS.
'NCIS: New York' Season 1 (2026)
Tuesdays, 9:00 p.m.
Image via CBSNCIS: Tony & Ziva may have been canceled, but there's another spin-off coming that will hopefully do better than a single season. NCIS: New York will star LL Cool J, reprising his role as Sam Hanna from NCIS: Los Angeles, the first and most popular NCIS spin-off, which lasted for 14 successful seasons. Hanna is a former special agent who returns to his hometown of New York to lead a new team alongside a new partner, played by Scott Caan.
Expanding the NCIS universe, which dominates the CBS primetime hours in the fall, NCIS: New York could work well with its winning formula, and the return of LL Cool J as a beloved and known character.
'NCIS: Origins' Season 3 (2024–Present)
Tuesdays, 10 p.m.
Image via CBSAfter Mark Harmon left NCIS in 2021, there was a brilliant idea for a spin-off that would follow his backstory. And so, NCIS: Origins was born, which stars Austin Stowell as a young Leroy Jethro Gibbs. The show covers the time when he was just starting out at the Naval Investigative Service, which eventually became the NCIS.
Harmon returns to narrate the series, which lends a sense of authenticity to the story, set a decade prior to the onset of the original. At some point, the timelines will converge too closely. For now, NCIS: Origins is continuing its successful run.
'Survivor' Season 51 (2000–Present)
Wednesdays, 8:00 p.m.
Image via CBSYou probably can't remember a time when Survivor wasn't part of the CBS primetime line-up, occupying your Wednesday evenings for an hour every week or, with the latest seasons, 1.5 hours per episode. The show about outwitting, outplaying, and outlasting others on a remote island continues to deliver exciting new twists season after season. Its best seasons especially stand out for introducing memorable cast members, exciting storylines, and even some controversies.
Even if the show continued as-is without changes, however, fans love the consistency, the way they know exactly what long-time host Jeff Probst is going to say before he says it. Viewers love coming up with their own strategies from home as they watch and hope their favorite players make it far. With a new group of castaways arriving in Fiji to participate in the physical and mental competition this season, Survivor remains a comforting guilty pleasure.
'The Amazing Race' Season 39 (2001–Present)
Wednesdays, 9:30 p.m.
Image via CBSOnce you're done with Survivor, why not keep the reality TV fun going with The Amazing Race? Or, thanks to DVRs, you can always save it and watch the next evening or over the weekend. The Amazing Race is going strong as a thrilling, fast-paced reality competition series that takes pairs of competitors on a worldwide scavenger hunt. Not only are they looking for clues, they're also participating in challenges. These aren't regular games, but ones that test their limits, patience, fears, and ability to work together. Plus, each leg of the race immerses them in different local cultures.
It's fun to relax on the couch and live vicariously through competitors, enjoying seeing all the different countries, and even learning a thing or two about historical sites and customs around the world. You also observe how the teams work together to make it to the end of each leg of the race as quickly as possible, aiming to win the final grand prize.
English (US) ·