My Top Choices for January TV

It’s hard to believe that 2025 is nearly at an end. We only have tomorrow before we change the calendar to 2026.

Did you get to watch all the programming that you wanted to watch this year? What does your “must-watch-list” look like in preparation for the New Year?

There are a lot of programming options, once again, next month, but I’ve selected my top choices for what I want to watch starting this coming weekend.

MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES

Out of the nearly dozen movies that will air next month, I have a few Hallmark Channel movies that I will tune in to watch mainly because of the cast who appears in each one and primarily only because of the cast.

Those movies are:

Lost in Paradise on January 3 at 8 PM, starring Lacey Chabert and Ian Harding;
Caught By Love on January 24 at 8 PM, starring Rachael Leigh Cook and Luke Macfarlane; and,
Missing the Boat on January 31 at 8 PM, starring Emilie Ullerup and Kristoffer Polaha.

Also, there will be a rom-com on Netflix on January 9 – People We Meet on Vacation – starring Billy the Kid star Tom Blyth and My Lady Jane lead Emily Bader. The movie focuses on Poppy (Bader) who wants to explore the world and Alex (Blyth) who prefers to stay home with a good book, but somehow they are the very best of friends. They live far apart, but for a decade they have spent one week of summer vacation together. Emily in Paris cast member Lucien Laviscount, The Good Place alum Jameela Jamil co-star along with Molly Shannon and Alan Ruck.

NEW DRAMAS

There are 16 new dramas that debut throughout January. From that lengthy list, I have selected my top two including:

Ponies will debut on Peacock on January 15, The series is set in 1977 in Moscow. Two “PONIES” (persons of no interest in intelligence speak) work anonymously as secretaries in the American Embassy. That is until their husbands are killed under mysterious circumstances in the USSR, and the pair become CIA operatives. Bea (Emilia Clarke) is an over-educated, Russian-speaking child of Soviet immigrants. Her cohort, Twila (Haley Lu Richardson), is a small-town girl who is as abrasive as she is fearless. Together, they work to uncover a vast Cold War conspiracy and solve the mystery that made them widows in the first place.

Grey’s Anatomy’s McDreamy Parick Dempsey returns to the small screen in a VERY different role that of an assassin with a double life as a family man, who has his two worlds colliding because he is hit with early onset Alzheimer’s. The show – Memory of a Killer – will debut on FOX on January 25 at 10 PM.

RETURNS AND PREMIERES

By the time the following shows air, the holidays will be officially over, allowing for linear TV to get back on track with new episodes. Among the returns on the major networks for which I am looking forward to watching are the following dramas:

Brilliant Minds on NBC on January 5 at 10 PM;
High Potential on ABC on January 6 at 9 PM; and,
Doc on FOX on January 6 at 9 PM.

Then the following dramas will be back with new seasons on both linear TV and streaming:

Will Trent on ABC on January 6 at 8 PM;
The Rookie on ABC on January 6 at 10 PM;
The Pitt on HBO Max on January 8;
Miss Scarlet on PBS on January 11 at 8 PM;
Hijack on Apple TV on January 14;
Wild Cards on the CW on January 26 at 8 PM;
School Spirits on Paramount+ on January 28; and,
Bridgerton (Part 1 of 2) on Netflix on January 29.

School Spirits

You can check out our full January TV calendar, focusing on dramas, specials, movies and more here. Once you’ve looked at next month’s calendar, please share with us what you are most looking forward to watching.