October brings a genuinely stacked lineup CBS and NBC roll out nearly their entire procedural universe in a single frantic week (three NCIS shows in one night, an all-Chicago Wednesday, a full Law & Order block), while streamers counter with prestige returns like The Diplomat, Lupin, and The Terminal List. On the movie side, the month leans hard into Halloween: a Stephen King series from Mike Flanagan, DC’s first horror film in Clayface, a Friday the 13th origin story, and Tom Cruise closing out the month’s earlier stretch with Iñárritu’s Digger. Below is everything premiering, series and season alike, listed chronologically with a quick synopsis for each new show and film.
Full List of Shows and Movies Premiering in October
Thursday, October 1
- Coven Academy — Series Premiere | Freeform, 8 p.m. — Three teenage witches and their dangerously charming warlock classmates navigate an elite New Orleans boarding school where power is currency and secrets are lethal.
Friday, October 2
- Digger — Movie Premiere | Theaters — Tom Cruise stars as Digger Rockwell, “the most powerful man in the world,” on a frantic mission to prove he’s humanity’s savior before the disaster he unleashed destroys everything.
- Verity — Movie Premiere | Theaters — A struggling writer (Dakota Johnson) is hired to ghostwrite the final books in a bestselling series after author Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway) is left unable to write following a mysterious accident, and uncovers a disturbing manuscript in the process.
Sunday, October 4
- Marshals — Season 2 | CBS, 8:30 p.m.
- Tracker — Season 4 | CBS, 9:30 p.m.
Monday, October 5
- FBI — Season 9 | CBS, 8 p.m.
- CIA — Season 2 | CBS, 9 p.m.
- Harlan Coben’s Final Twist — Season 2 | CBS, 10 p.m.
- Private Eyes West Coast — Series Premiere | The CW, 8 p.m. — Jason Priestley and Cindy Sampson reunite as private investigators Matt Shade and Angie Everett, pulled back into the field when a night out lands them at a murder scene.
- Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent — Season 2 | The CW, 9 p.m. — Detective Sergeants Henry Graff and Frankie Bateman tackle Toronto’s most high-profile homicides, inspired by real Canadian headlines, exploring family, money, and power.
Tuesday, October 6
- Reasonable Doubt — Season 4 | Hulu
- NCIS — Season 24 | CBS, 8 p.m. — Featuring Michael Weatherly’s return for a season-long arc.
- NCIS: New York — Series Premiere | CBS, 9 p.m. — Senior Special Agent Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) returns to his hometown and partners with a roguish new agent (Scott Caan).
- NCIS: Origins — Season 3 | CBS, 10 p.m. — Featuring Mark Harmon in a present-day storyline tied to Gibbs.
Wednesday, October 7
- Chicago Med — Season 12 | NBC
- Abbott Elementary — Season 6 | ABC
- Chicago Fire — Season 15 | NBC
- Chicago P.D. — Season 14 | NBC
- Carrie — Series Premiere | Prime Video (all 8 episodes) — Misfit high schooler Carrie White is thrust into public school after her father’s death, facing a viral bullying scandal, social-media-era cruelty, and her own awakening telekinetic powers, in Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel.
Thursday, October 8
- Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage — Season 3 | CBS
- Eternally Yours — Series Premiere | CBS — Two vampires who’ve been married for 500 years struggle to accept the human their daughter is dating.
- Elsbeth — Season 4 | CBS
- Law & Order: SVU — Season 28 | NBC
- Cupertino — Series Premiere | CBS — A wronged lawyer (Mike Colter) partners with a promising young attorney (Rachel Keller) to take on Big Tech.
- Law & Order — Season 26 | NBC
Friday, October 9
- Sheriff Country — Season 2 | CBS
- Fire Country — Season 5 | CBS — Now co-starring Olivia Thirlby.
- Boston Blue — Season 2 | CBS
- The Social Reckoning — Movie Premiere | Theaters — Aaron Sorkin’s companion piece to The Social Network, telling the true story of how Facebook engineer Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison) worked with reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) to expose the “Facebook Files.”
- Matchbox: The Movie — Movie Premiere | Apple TV — A group of childhood friends, led by undercover CIA agent Sean (John Cena), are drawn into a frantic international chase to recover a stolen nuclear weapon and clear their names.
- Animals — Movie Premiere | Netflix and select theaters — A mayoral candidate and his wife, desperate to pay their son’s ransom, resort to extreme measures that unearth dark secrets.
- Misty Green — Movie Premiere | Theaters (limited) — A fading award-winning actress (Rosalind Eleazar) revisits her past and confronts her demons while attempting a comeback, in Chris Rock’s directorial return.
- The Beast — Movie Premiere | Theaters — When a militia stages a coup against the U.S., the president (Samuel L. Jackson) uncovers the full extent of his armored vehicle’s classified defensive capabilities to survive.
Tuesday, October 14
- VisionQuest — Series Premiere | Disney+ and Hulu
- The Lowdown — Season 2 | FX/Hulu, 9 p.m. ET
- Helluva Boss — Season 3, Part 1 | Prime Video — The Immediate Murder Professionals return for a bigger, 15-episode season (split into two parts) following Blitzø and his crew of hell-bound assassins.
Thursday, October 15
- Crystal Lake — Series Premiere | Peacock (all 8 episodes) — A Friday the 13th prequel following the Voorhees family before young Jason’s drowning, starring Linda Cardellini as Pamela Voorhees.
- The Diplomat — Season 4 | Netflix (all 8 episodes) — Ambassador Kate Wyler uncovers a plot by President Grace Penn and VP Hal Wyler to seize a Russian nuclear weapon, pushing the U.S. to the brink of war.
- 9-1-1 — Season 10 | ABC
- 9-1-1: Nashville — Season 2 | ABC
- Grey’s Anatomy — Season 23 | ABC
Friday, October 16
- Street Fighter — Movie Premiere | Theaters — Estranged fighters Ryu and Ken Masters are pulled back into competition when Chun-Li recruits them for the next World Warrior Tournament, unraveling a conspiracy that forces former allies into enemies.
- Once Upon a Time in Harlem — Movie Premiere | Theaters (NY/LA) — Restored 1972 footage of a reunion of Harlem Renaissance luminaries at Duke Ellington’s townhouse, shot by William Greaves and completed by his son decades later.
- The Only Living Pickpocket in New York — Movie Premiere | Theaters (NY/LA limited) — An aging pickpocket (John Turturro) unwittingly steals a valuable USB stick and races to return it before a vengeful crime family catches up to him; wide release October 23.
Wednesday, October 21
- The Terminal List — Season 2 | Prime Video (all 8 episodes) — Navy SEAL Commander James Reece (Chris Pratt) is drawn into a globe-spanning conspiracy tied to his own family’s history.
Friday, October 23
- Clayface — Movie Premiere | Theaters — A rising Hollywood actor undergoes an experimental treatment to restore his disfigured face, only for it to transform his body into living, shape-shifting clay.
- Klara and the Sun — Movie Premiere | Theaters — An “Artificial Friend” (Jenna Ortega) devoted to an ailing teenage girl and her mother (Amy Adams) begins to heal their fractured family, based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel.
- Wicker — Movie Premiere | Theaters (limited) — An ostracized fisherwoman (Olivia Colman) commissions a husband made by the local basketmaker, only for her wicker husband (Alexander Skarsgård) to upend village life; wide release October 30.
- Lupin — Season 4 | Netflix (all 8 episodes) — Omar Sy returns as Assane Diop, picking up after his dramatic surrender at the end of Part 3.
- Happy’s Place — Season 3 | NBC
- Newlyweds — Series Premiere | NBC — A free-spirited woman (Téa Leoni) and a buttoned-up professor (Tim Daly) marry impulsively after a whirlwind courtship; Jamie Lee Curtis recurs as executive producer.
Thursday, October 29
- Ghosts Halloween Special | CBS
Friday, October 30
- Nocturne — Series Premiere | Apple TV+ (first 2 of 10 episodes) — An ex-soldier-turned-homicide-detective (Liev Schreiber) moves his family to small-town Pennsylvania, only to have them targeted by a brilliant serial killer (Stephen Graham).
- Wicker — Wide theatrical expansion.