Upfront Standouts for Fall TV

Last week the networks made their annual presentations to the New York advertisers, announcing their planned fall TV schedules, including the shows that will be returning as well as the new shows that will be debuting throughout the entire 2019-2020 TV season.

Since I am a big fan of TV dramas, I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the standouts at each of the five major networks, focusing on what MIGHT be the top new show for each of the networks.

Here is that list in alphabetical order by network:

ABC

Stumptown follows Dex Parios (Cobie Smulders from How I Met Your Mother and the Avengers franchise), a strong, assertive and sharp-witted army veteran with a complicated love life, gambling debt and a brother to take care of in Portland, Oregon. Her military intelligence skills make her a great PI, but her unapologetic style puts her in the firing line of hardcore criminals and not quite in alliance with the police. The series also stars Michael Ealy (Secrets and Lies and Almost Human) and Camryn Manheim (The Practice and The Magicians).

Here is the trailer for Stumptown:

You can check out all the details on the proposed ABC line-up, as well as information and videos (where available) for all the new dramas here.

CBS

Tommy will star Edie Falco (The Sopranos) as a former high-ranking NYPD officer who becomes the first female Chief of Police for Los Angeles. A true blue New Yorker, Abigail “Tommy” Thomas uses her unflinching honesty and hardball tactics to keep social, political and national security issues from hindering effective law enforcement in the Southland. Equal parts political, procedural and family drama.

Here is the trailer for Tommy:

You can check out all the details on the proposed CBS line-up, as well as information and videos (where available) for all the new dramas here.

FOX

Prodigal Son focuses on Malcolm Bright (Tom Payne from The Walking Dead) who has a gift. He knows how killers think. Back in the 1990s, his father, Dr. Martin Whitly (Michael Sheen) was one of the best, a notorious serial killer called The Surgeon. That is why Malcolm is the best criminal psychologist, as murder is the family business. He will use his twisted genius to help the NYPD solve crimes and stop killers, all while dealing with a manipulative mother (Bellamy Young from Scandal), annoyingly normal sister (Halston Sage from The Orville), a homicidal father still looking to bond with his prodigal son and his own constantly evolving neuroses.

Here is the trailer for Prodigal Son:

You can check out all the details on the proposed FOX line-up, as well as information and videos (where available) for all the new dramas here.

NBC

Lincoln is inspired by the best-selling book The Bone Collector, centered on former NYPD detective and forensic genius Lincoln Rhyme (Russell Hornsby from Grimm) was at the top of his game until a serious accident at the hands of a notorious serial killer forces him out of the field. When Amelia Sachs (Arielle Kebbel from Midnight Texas), an intuitive young officer who’s got her own gift for profiling, finds herself hot on the killer’s trail, Rhyme in turn finds a partner for this new game of cat and mouse. As the unlikely detective duo joins forces to crack the city’s most confounding cases, they must also race to take down the enigmatic “Bone Collector” who brought them together.

No trailer for Lincoln is available yet.

You can check out all the details on the proposed NBC line-up, as well as information and videos (where available) for all the new dramas here.

The CW

Batwoman is focused on Kate Kane (Ruby Rose from Orange Is the New Black) never planned to be Gotham’s new vigilante. Three years after Batman mysteriously disappeared, Gotham is a city in despair. Without the Caped Crusader, the Gotham City Police Department was overrun and outgunned by criminal gangs. Enter Jacob Kane (Dougray Scott from box office movie Ever After) and his military-grade Crows Private Security, which now protects the city with omnipresent firepower and militia. Years before, Jacob’s first wife and daughter were killed in the crossfire of Gotham crime. He sent his only surviving daughter, Kate Kane, away from Gotham for her safety. After a dishonorable discharge from military school and years of brutal survival training, Kate returns home when the Alice in Wonderland gang targets her father and his security firm, by kidnapping his best Crow officer Sophie Moore (Meagan Tandy from Teen Wolf). Although remarried to wealthy socialite Catherine Hamilton-Kane (Elizabeth Anweis from NCIS: Los Angeles), who bankrolls the Crows, Jacob is still struggling with the family he lost, while keeping Kate –– the daughter he still has –– at a distance. But Kate is a woman who’s done asking for permission. In order to help her family and her city, she’ll have to become the one thing her father loathes: a dark knight vigilante. With the help of her compassionate stepsister, Mary (Nicole Kang from You), and the crafty Luke Fox (Camrus Johnson from the box office movie The Sun Is Also a Star), the son of Wayne Enterprises’ tech guru Lucius Fox, Kate Kane continues the legacy of her missing cousin, Bruce Wayne, as Batwoman. Still holding a flame for her ex-girlfriend, Sophie, Kate uses everything in her power to combat the dark machinations of the psychotic Alice (Rachel Skarsten from Lost Girl), who’s always somewhere, slipping between sane and insane. Armed with a passion for social justice and a flair for speaking her mind, Kate soars through the shadowed streets of Gotham as Batwoman. But don’t call her a hero yet. In a city desperate for a savior, she must first overcome her own demons before embracing the call to be Gotham’s symbol of hope.

Here is the trailer for Batwoman:

You can check out all the details on the proposed The CW line-up, as well as information and videos (where available) for all the new dramas here.

Once you’ve had a chance to look at the fall line-ups for the five major networks, which new dramas are you most looking forward to watching, and which returning dramas are you eager to see again? Please share below.