What to Expect on TV in July

Just as June is the start of summer there will be plenty of new and returning dramas as well as made-for-TV movies or mini-series airing on the major and cable networks throughout this month but there is even more coming next month.

In order to prepare for even more shows to add to your already busy viewing schedule, here are just some of the programming options coming up in July:

The Australian series The Almighty Johnsons is expected to premiere on Syfy sometime in July. The series follows a student named Axl Johnson, who on his 21st birthday discovers his family members are reincarnated Norse gods. The problem is, they do not have full control of their powers and it is up to Axl (the reincarnation of Odin) to restore them and ensure the family’s survival by finding the reincarnation of Odin’s wife, Frigg.

The second season of Witches of East End will get started on Lifetime on July 6 at 9 PM.

Then on July 8, the new MTV drama Finding Carter will debut at 10 PM. The series centers on Carter, a teenage girl who thinks she has the perfect life until one night after a police bust at a high school party she is told that the woman who she believes to be her biological mother actually abducted her as a toddler.

The new CBS drama Extant will debut on July 9 at 9 PM. Halle Berry will play an astronaut who returns home from a year-long solo mission in space and tries to reconnect with her husband and son in their everyday life. Her experiences in space and home lead to events that ultimately will change the course of human history.

On July 15, the El Rey Network drama Matador will debut at 9 PM. This new series chronicles the unlikely rise of Antonio “Matador” Bravo (Gabriel Luna from Prison Break), a popular soccer star, who comes to be known as much for his playboy antics off the field as his dynamic moves on it. But what his fans and family don’t realize is that it’s all a cover–in truth, he is a skilled covert operative executing missions for a little known branch of the CIA. “Matador” has the kind of fame and notoriety that affords him access to powerful circles of corruption and villainy. But, in balancing the dueling roles in which he’s been cast, he will be forced to confront the question of his true identity and it is this mission which will prove to be his most dangerous.

The Hallmark Channel series Cedar Cove will be back for its second season on July 19 at 8 PM followed by the network’s original movie For Better or Worse debuting at 9 PM. Lisa Whelchel and Kim Fields, from classic series Facts of Life, star in a new made-for-TV movie about a woman starting to settle into the single life after struggling with the death of her husband. After a difficult season of grief, she’s taken over the family business of coordinating the town’s most beautiful and memorable weddings with the help of her friend and co-worker Roseanne.

On July 20, the new Lifetime drama The Lottery will debut at 10 PM. Set within a dystopian future driven by a global fertility crisis, the series reveals a world staring down the barrel of impending extinction as women have mysteriously stopped bearing children. After years of research, Dr. Alison Lennon (Marley Shelton from Eleventh Hour) and her team remarkably fertilize 100 embryos. However, her victory is short-lived when the Director of the U.S. Fertility Commission, Darius Hayes (Martin Donovan from Homeland), takes government control of the lab and informs the President (Yul Vasquez from Magic City) of the monumental scientific breakthrough. To determine which women will carry the prized embryos to term, Chief of Staff Vanessa Keller (Athena Karkanis from Low Winter Sun) convinces the President to hold a national lottery and a battle over the control of the 100 embryos begins.

The Hallmark Movie Channel original movie The Memory Book will debut on July 26 at 9 PM. Chloe Davenport (Meghan Ory (Intelligence and Once Upon a Time), a budding photographer in San Francisco, discovers a personal book of pictures showcasing the romance of a young couple from the early seventies. Although the pictures show a couple who is very happy, Chloe is skeptical and believes true love is a falsehood. Wanting to find out more, Chloe sets out on an emotional journey to find the couple, Sarah and Jonathan, who she knows only through their old photos. With the help of a new friend, handsome but impulsive bartender Gabe, she follows leads all around the city, attempting to discover love and find the willingness to accept it in her own life.

On July 27, the second original scripted series at WGN America, Manhattan, will debut at 10 PM. The series is set in the 1940s in a town whose very existence is classified. Frank Winter (John Benjamin Hickey from The Big C) and his team of brilliant but flawed scientists have been recruited to work on a project even they could know nothing about until their arrival.

The 8-part mini-series The Honorable Woman will debut on Sundance TV original at 10 PM. The film follows Nessa Stein (Maggie Gyllenhaal), whose father was a Zionist arms procurer; as children, she and her brother witness his assassination. Years later, after inheriting her father’s company, she dramatically inverts its purpose from supplying arms to laying high-spec data cabling networks between Israel and the West Bank. Now in her thirties, her sudden appointment to the House of Lords, apparently due to her tireless promotion of projects for reconciliation between the Israelis and Palestinians, creates an international political maelstrom.

There are plenty more viewing options throughout July. Please check out the July TV calendar when it is posted closer to the end of June.