May is arguably the busiest month by way of network TV news, from all the big finales airing to the variety of high-profile cancellations to last-minute renewals. It’s also the point where execs solidify dates and time slots for returning hits and debuting hopefuls arriving later in the 2025 TV schedule. One day after CBS’ Fall TV plans were revealed, NBC went public with its own lineup, which includes some big news for a pair of shows in waiting, and a great update for Daniel Radcliffe’s new comedy series.
Before learning everything that the Peacock network will have in store for audiences later this year, which obviously includes the previously renewed three-series One Chicago franchise, let’s first dig into NBC’s late-in-the-game renewals decisions.
NBC Saved Two On-The-Bubble Dramas From Cancellation
After making the call to cancel quite a few shows from its 2024-2025 schedule, in large part to account for the return of NBA on NBC, the network kept fanbases waiting until the eleventh hour to deliver a pair of stellar updates. Both Melissa Roxburgh’s The Hunting Party and Zachary Quinto’s Brilliant Minds have been renewed for their respective sophomore seasons. What’s more, both are now set for full seasons of 18-22 episodes!
The Hunting Party, which became a bigger hit with general audiences than with critics, was a Monday-night offering in its ten-episode first year, but that’ll change for Season 2. NBC is shifting the procedural crime drama over to Thursday nights as a no-brainer follow-up to the long-running pair of Law & Order series. No better night on broadcast TV for Hunting Party’s twisted serial killers.
The reason why Roxburgh’s show is switching nights is because Brilliant Minds, which wrapped its Monday-set first season ahead of The Hunting Party’s midseason arrival, will be sticking around its previous time slot. It looks like NBC execs were happy with how the Quinto-led medical drama did in its post-Voice slot.
NBC’s Fall TV Lineup
With that pair of renewal updates now out of the way, we can now take a big-picture look at the entire schedule, though exact premiere dates have yet to be announced.
Be sure to note that all times listed below are in EST.
Mondays
8:00 p.m. – The Voice Season 28
10:00 p.m. – Brilliant Minds Season 2
Tuesdays
September
8:00 p.m. – The Voice Season 28
10:00 p.m. – ON BRAND WITH JIMMY FALLON Season 1
October
8:00 p.m. – NBA on NBC
Wednesdays
8:00 p.m. – Chicago Med Season 11
9:00 p.m. – Chicago Fire Season 14
10:00 p.m. – Chicago P.D. Season 13
Thursdays
8:00 p.m. – Law & Order Season 25
9:00 p.m. – Law & Order: SVU Season 27
10 p.m. – The Hunting Party Season 2
Fridays
8:00 p.m. – ON BRAND WITH JIMMY FALLON Season 1
9:00 p.m. – Dateline NBC Season 34
Saturdays
7:00 p.m. – NCAA Big Ten Pregame
7:30 p.m. – NCAA Big Ten Saturday Night
Sundays
7:00 p.m. – Football Night in America Season 19
8:20 p.m. – NBC Sunday Night Football
Daniel Radcliffe And Jimmy Fallon’s New Shows, And More Extra Tidbits
Though it wasn’t part of the initial Fall TV line-up, the previously announced team-up between Tracy Morgan and Daniel Radcliff, the comedy titled The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins has been ordered up, presumably for a midseason start. Created by 30 Rock’s Robert Carlock and Sam Means, the new project stars Morgan as a former football player who is attempting to revert his downfall into disgrace and bring some shine back to his image.
Executive produced by Means, Carlock and the latter’s go-to comedy partner Tina Fey, Reggie Dinkins sounds like it could be a huge hit, with Morgan likely set for an endless number of uncomfortably wreckless and morally questionable situations. Just like 30 Rock’s Tracy Jordan!
Speaking of 30 Rock — the location this time, not the series — building mainstay Jimmy Fallon will be debuting a new unscripted series called On Brand with Jimmy Fallon. In the new project, the Tonight Show host will start up a high-profile marketing agency that he staffs with highly creative and competitive hopefuls who will be fighting to come out on top as what I can only assume will be called the Brand Ambassador.
Another new unscripted series coming to NBC’s schedule is Surviving Earth, an eight-episode event series that will take audiences back to the cataclysmic events that led to life thriving on this planet, with cautionary lessons to be learned from past mass extinctions and other noteworthy prehistoric incidents.
Finally, NBC confirmed that St. Denis Medical, as well as the previously renewed Happy’s Place, will arrive on the Fall schedule in November, where both will be used as lead-in launchpads for a pair of new comedies, with Reggie Dinkins likely being one of them.
