It’s that time of year again. The US broadcast networks are staring at pilot scripts, rough cuts, internal screenings and spreadsheets, all while pretending they definitely know what next season is going to look like. Spoiler: they don’t. Still, a few 2026 pilots have started to edge out from the pack, and while this is no longer the full-fat pilot season madness of years gone by, there’s enough movement to piece together where ABC, CBS and NBC seem to be heading.
ABC’s position is probably the clearest. It only has two pilots in play, but one of them looks to be in much better shape.
The strongest buzz is around ‘The Rookie: North’, a spinoff from ‘The Rookie‘ that swaps LA streets for the forests of Pierce County and follows a patrol cop story built around an older rookie starting over later in life. Unlike ‘The Rookie: Feds’, this one was made as a standalone pilot, and current reporting says it has tested well enough to become the network’s most likely new scripted pickup. Jay Ellis (Top Gun: Maverick) leads the cast, with Karen Fukuhara (The Boys) also starring, and the rural setting gives it a slightly different flavour from the mothership without throwing away the core appeal.
Karen Fukuhara (The Boys), Jay Ellis (All Her Fault) – The Rookie: North
The other ABC contender, ‘Do You Want Kids?’, sounds like one of those pilots that could either become a smart breakout comedy or vanish without a trace. Co-written by and starring Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) opposite Rory Scovel (Physical), it plays with a Sliding Doors-style setup by following one married couple across two different realities, one where they have a baby and one where they don’t. It is a strong hook, at least on paper, but the current chatter is far less confident than it is for ‘The Rookie: North’, with pickup odds sounding more like a coin toss.
That leaves ABC looking like it may expand its scripted slate again, even if only by a show or so. Which, in the current climate, counts as positively reckless optimism. The network is also said to be in good shape with its returning scripted lineup, so the bigger question is less “will ABC add something new?” and more “is there room for anything beyond ‘The Rookie: North’?” Right now, the answer looks like “probably not.”
CBS, meanwhile, has already done the least surprising thing possible by being the most decisive network in the room, partly due to its UpFront coming this month… later today, in fact… rather than in May. It went into April, choosing between two comedy pilots, then made the call by ordering ‘Eternally Yours‘ to series and passing on ‘The Tillbrooks’.
Of the two, ‘Eternally Yours’ always felt like the more obviously “CBS, but trying to be a bit cooler” option. The single-camera comedy stars Ed Weeks (The Mindy Project) and Allegra Edwards (Upload) and comes from the ‘Ghosts’ team, following a vampire couple navigating modern life after centuries together. It has the supernatural angle, the built-in tonal link to ‘Ghosts’, and the kind of concept that at least sounds a bit more distinctive than standard domestic sitcom business. CBS clearly liked it enough to move quickly.
That means ‘The Tillbrooks’, the multi-camera rival starring Kate Walsh (Grey’s Anatomy) and Rhys Darby (Our Flag Means Death), is the one left behind. That show had a more traditional family sitcom setup with a historical twist. So if you were expecting CBS to default to the more traditional multi-cam option, apparently not. The network went with the vampire comedy instead, which still feels like a slightly surreal sentence to write about CBS.
NBC is the messiest and probably the most fun to watch because it actually went fairly big on pilots this year. It ordered eight of them, five dramas and three comedies, which is a lot by current standards and enough to make this feel vaguely like a proper old-school pilot season again. The early word is that several have come in well, which is great for NBC and slightly less great for the bubble shows already sitting on the schedule nervously watching from the corner.
The two early frontrunners are ‘The Rockford Files‘ reboot and an untitled single-camera PI comedy from Dan Goor and Luke Del Tredici starring Jake Johnson (New Girl). ‘The Rockford Files’ is exactly the sort of project NBC would love to work in 2026: a known title, a crime format audiences understand immediately, and David Boreanaz (SEAL Team, Bones) stepping in as Jim Rockford, a private investigator returning to the job after being wrongfully imprisoned. It is familiar, sturdy, and built to say “yes, this is a broadcast drama, and yes, your dad will probably watch it.”
The Jake Johnson pilot also has a strong hook. He plays a private investigator too, which means NBC currently has two buzzy pilots built around PIs, because apparently somebody in development decided America was ready to solve crimes in a more charmingly dishevelled way again. This one also has the Brooklyn Nine-Nine pedigree behind it, which gives it a decent shot if NBC wants something accessible, personality-driven and a little more modern than yet another standard workplace comedy.
Beyond those two, there has also been good noise around ‘Puzzled’, starring Damon Wayans Jr. (Happy Endings), and the untitled Dean Georgaris and John Fox drama led by Emily Deschanel (Bones), while multi-camera comedy ‘Newlyweds’, starring Tèa Leoni (Madam Secretary) and Tim Daly (Private Practice), has apparently had encouraging feedback from its taping too. So NBC may actually wind up with the opposite problem from some of its rivals: more decent pilots than there are obvious slots on the schedule. There has already been chatter that if that happens, one project could get bumped sideways to Peacock instead. Because this is 2026, and even pilot season now comes with a possible streaming escape hatch.
Fox is a slightly different story this year, as it does not seem to be carrying the same kind of pilot-season suspense as ABC, CBS and NBC. Instead, the network already looks to have a clearer idea of what its next slate includes. The headline grabber is obviously ‘Baywatch‘, a reboot of the classic ’90s lifeguard drama starring Stephen Amell (Arrow), Shay Mitchell (Pretty Little Liars), Noah Beck (Sidelined: The QB and Me), Jessica Belkin (American Horror Story), Hassie Harrison (Yellowstone), Thaddeus LaGrone (The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live), Brooks Nader (The Better Sister), Ashley Moore (I Know What You Did Last Summer), Kylar Miranda (The Sex Lives of College Girls), Luke Eisner (Tall Girl), Nadia Gray (The Sex Lives of College Girls), Livvy Dunne (The D’Amelio Show), Charlie McElveen (The Girl From Plainville), with David Chokachi returning from the original series.
Alongside that, Fox has also handed a straight-to-series order to ‘The Interrogator‘, a spy drama starring, written and executive produced by Stephen Fry (yes, THAT Stephen Fry). Add in the already announced ‘Family Guy’ spinoff ‘Stewie‘, which is being held for the 2027-28 season, and Fox looks less like a network sweating over undecided pilots and more like one quietly filling in the gaps around a heavily renewed existing slate.
That makes Fox feel a bit less chaotic than some of its rivals. With renewals already handed out across much of its scripted lineup, from ‘Doc’ and ‘Animal Control’ through to its long-running animation heavyweights, the network’s 2026-27 picture looks more about adding a couple of fresh pieces than making huge structural changes.
So, where does all that leave us?
ABC’s best bet still looks like ‘The Rookie: North’. CBS has already planted its flag with ‘Eternally Yours’. NBC’s early leaders appear to be ‘The Rockford Files’ and the untitled Jake Johnson comedy, though it sounds like there are a few others still hanging around with a pulse.
None of this is locked until the schedules are properly in place, of course, but the broad shape is starting to emerge. And once again, the annual broadcast ritual continues: executives insist they are making bold creative choices, while everyone else squints at the pilot buzz and tries to work out which shows are actually making it out alive.
We will, of course, be posting updates as things change throughout the next few weeks, so keep an eye on the site homepage for the latest info. You can also check the Renewals/Cancellations page for updates, along with the UK Air Dates page for the latest UK premiere dates.
Login to Geektown