Coming off its best season in some time, NBC had every reason to leave well enough alone, and its confirmed 2026-27 lineup mostly does. The franchises that carry the network stay where loyal viewers expect them, a few new arrivals fill the gaps, and the splashiest swing, a revival of a much-loved classic, is being held back for the new year.
Leading the pack is Line of Fire, a conspiracy thriller starring Peter Krause and Hope Davis as a family of federal agents, and it doubles as Krause’s return to network TV after his 9-1-1 character, Bobby Nash, was killed off last year. There is also Newlyweds, a comedy built around real-life couple Téa Leoni and Tim Daly, and The Traitors: New Blood, the first US civilian edition of Peacock’s Emmy-winning reality hit, with Alan Cumming again presiding over the Scottish castle.
The backbone, though, is unchanged. Dick Wolf’s One Chicago trio holds its Wednesday block from October 7, while Thursdays keep Law & Order: SVU, now in its 28th season, alongside the flagship Law & Order. The one wrinkle there is a demotion: after years opening the night, the original Law & Order slides to 10 PM so the civilian Traitors can lead off. Clearing the space meant losses, and NBC cut Brilliant Minds, The Hunting Party, and Chris Meloni’s Law & Order: Organized Crime to balance the books.
The rest unspools on a staggered timetable, with The Traitors opening the fall on September 17, The Voice returning for its 30th season on September 21 with Kelly Clarkson and Adam Levine back in the chairs, and the comedy nights arriving through late October and early November.
Which leaves the headline act for after the holidays. NBC is holding two new dramas for a midseason launch in early 2027, and the marquee one is The Rockford Files, a contemporary reboot of the 1974-80 detective series, first ordered to pilot in January, with David Boreanaz stepping into James Garner’s trench coat as newly pardoned private eye Jim Rockford. Jake Johnson’s comedy Sunset P.I. joins it on the midseason bench.
Banking on Boreanaz for mid-season feels right. Angel ran five seasons, Bones lasted 12, and SEAL Team only wrapped in 2024, and Rockford offers something looser than the authority figures he usually plays. The delay, scripted chief Lisa Katz told Variety, is purely about real estate: the network wanted the show at 8 PM and “didn’t have an 8 p.m. time period in the fall.”
It also arrives with good company. Between Sunset P.I. on the same network and ABC’s RJ Decker working similar ground, the private eye is back in fashion, and Rockford will have to show the format still holds up more than 50 years on.
- Release Date
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1974 – 1980-00-00
- Network
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NBC
- Directors
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William Wiard, Lawrence Doheny, Ivan Dixon, Jerry London, Reza Badiyi, Russ Mayberry, Jackie Cooper, Lou Antonio, Corey Allen, Jeannot Szwarc, Stephen J. Cannell, Alexander Grasshoff, Arnold Laven, Harry Falk, John Patterson, Stuart Margolin, Alexander Singer, Bernard L. Kowalski, Bernard McEveety, Bruce Kessler, Charles S. Dubin, Christian I. Nyby II, Dana Elcar, Hy Averback
- Writers
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Gordon T. Dawson, Rudolph Borchert, Don Carlos Dunaway, Edward J. Lakso, David Taylor, Donald L. Gold, Rogers Turrentine, Walter Dallenbach, Lester Wm. Berke, William R. Stratton, Jo Swerling Jr., Leigh Brackett, Mitch Lindemann, Robert Hamner, Zekial Marko, Howard Berk, Shel Willens, Eric Kaldor, Gloryette Clark
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Noah Beery Jr.
Joseph “Rocky” Rockford
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Gretchen Corbett
Beth Davenport
