NOVA/PBSALSO SEE: GET A FREE PRINTABLE NFL 2025 TV SCHEDULE! 🏈
All Times Eastern. PBS programming varies regionally. Learn more about protecting access to public media.
Wednesday, Oct. 15
NOVA: Human
PBS, 9pm
In the final episode of Human, discover how Homo sapiens transformed from nomads to empire builders. Witness the innovations, from animal domestication to writing, that revolutionized ancient life and shaped our modern world.
Stories of World War II
TCM, beginning at 6am
Catch a Classic!
Get yourself ready for frontline action as TCM gives us a marathon of stories from the European theater of World War II. Leading off is Underground (1941), a tale of two brothers in the SS in Germany. One becomes convinced of the evils of Nazism and tries to convince his brother of those evils. Next up is The Cross of Lorraine (1943), about a group of French resistance soldiers in a German POW camp trying to devise a way to escape, starring Jean-Pierre Aumont and Gene Kelly. Following is Desperate Journey (1942), starring Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan and Alan Hale, in which an Allied plane crew is shot down behind enemy lines and attempts to escape with top-secret intelligence. Next up is The North Star (1943), starring Anne Baxter and Dana Andrews, in which a Ukrainian farming village braces itself for the German invasion. Next is Uncertain Glory (1944), where a French convict facing execution (Errol Flynn) offers to exchange his life for 100 captured Allied soldiers. Following is Joan of Paris (1942), about a Frenchwoman who risks her life to help five downed British airmen escape Nazi-occupied France. Next up is Passport to Destiny (1944), about a British cleaning woman (Elsa Lanchester) who sneaks into Nazi Germany, believing she is protected by a magical charm, to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Wrapping things up is To the Victor (1948), a drama about an American black marketeer in Paris who falls in love with the wife of a Nazi collaborator.
Elio
Disney+
For centuries, people have called out to the universe looking for answers. In this fun-filled, action-packed feature film from Disney and Pixar, the universe calls back! The cosmic misadventure introduces Elio, a space fanatic with an active imagination and a huge alien obsession.
NHL Hockey
TNT, beginning at 7pm Live
Wednesday night NHL action on TNT has the Florida Panthers in Detroit to skate against the Red Wings and the Chicago Blackhawks in St. Louis to battle the Blues.
The Floor: “All Is Fair in Love and Floor”
FOX, 8pm
Records are broken, and a new threat emerges to deliver a shocking blow that changes the face of the Floor in the new episode “All Is Fair in Love and Floor.”
Abbott Elementary: “Ballgame”
ABC, 8:30pm
The Abbott crew heads to the ballpark for Teachers’ Appreciation Night at the Philadelphia Phillies game in the new episode “Ballgame.”
Chicago Fire: “In the Blood”
NBC, 9pm
When city budget cuts stretch crews thin, Pascal (Dermot Mulroney) takes matters into his own hands in the new episode “In the Blood.”
Chicago P.D.: “Canaryville”
NBC, 10pm
A homicide in the neighborhood where two officers reside forces the team to investigate complicated relationships within the tight-knit community in the new episode “Canaryville.”
Secrets of the Dead: “Cleopatra’s Last Temple”
PBS, 10pm
For more than 30 years, French explorer Franck Goddio has been hoping to confirm that ruins just below the Mediterranean’s surface in Alexandria’s harbor are a temple belonging to Cleopatra. If true, this discovery could reveal vital new information about Cleopatra’s reign and her connection with the goddess Isis.
Get the latest from ReMIND Magazine!
Thursday, Oct. 16
Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage
CBS, 8pm
Season Premiere!
Season 2 of the Young Sheldon spinoff premieres with “A Tie Breaker and a Huge Mistake,” in which new tire store co-owners Georgie and Ruben (Montana Jordan and Jessie Prez) realize they can’t agree on anything.
Hell’s Kitchen: “There’s Something Fishy Going On”
FOX, 8pm
In the new episode “There’s Something Fishy Going On,” the chefs visit Stonington, Connecticut, to compete in a very fishy relay race.
Star of the Month: Angela Lansbury
TCM, beginning at 8pm
Catch a Classic!
Turner Classic Movies celebrates the career of Angela Lansbury on what would have been her 100th birthday with a block of her classic films. The night starts with her very first film, Gaslight (1944), also featuring Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman. Lansbury was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, while Boyer and Bergman were nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress, respectively, with Bergman winning. Lansbury was only 19 years old when she starred in the next film, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945). The role earned her Best Supporting Actress nominations for both a Golden Globe and Oscar (she won the Globe), and she is forever remembered for her haunting and devastating performance as the beautifully kind Sibyl Vane. Following is The Manchurian Candidate (1962), a Cold War thriller about a U.S. soldier programmed as an assassin. While Lansbury rarely portrayed villains, as Eleanor, she brilliantly played the ice-cold wife of a powerful U.S. senator who ultimately was the monstrous mastermind behind their evil plot. Next comes Kind Lady (1951), a drama in which a wealthy, charitable woman is manipulated and imprisoned in her own home by a con man posing as a struggling artist. Concluding things is Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1982), a thriller about a vengeful barber who murders his customers with a straight razor, while his accomplice bakes their bodies into meat pies.
NFL Football: Pittsburgh at Cincinnati
Prime Video, 8:15pm Live
Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers visit Cincinnati’s Paycor Stadium to face the Bengals on Thursday Night Football.
Ghosts
CBS, 8:30pm
Season Premiere!
Sam (Rose McIver), Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) and the ghosts attempt to extricate Jay from his deal with the devil’s emissary, Elias Woodstone (guest star Matt Walsh), in the Season 5 premiere “Soul Custody.”
Family Guy
HULU
This year’s Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ exclusive Family Guy Halloween Special premieres Oct. 6, with another Holiday Special coming later this fall. The Griffin family may live on Spooner Street, but Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ is their streaming home, with more Seth MacFarlane-voiced antics returning in 2026 for the show’s 24th season.
Matlock: “Another Matlock”
CBS, 9pm
While the team is tasked with protecting a witness, Matty and Olympia (Kathy Bates and Skye P. Marshall) square off over the Wellbrexa document in the new episode “Another Matlock.”
Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test: “Mind Set”
FOX, 9pm
In the new episode “Mind Set,” recruits must plummet down a 330-foot drop. At the bottom, they are asked to recite a set of coordinates that they were asked to memorize prior to the drop.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: “Clickbait”
NBC, 9pm
When a tween suffers a life-threatening miscarriage, the SVU must unravel a web of online fabrications to identify a suspect in the new episode “Clickbait.”
Velvet: “Who Gives the Most?”
PBS, 9pm
Alberto (Miguel Ángel Silvestre) is concerned when Cristina (Manuela Velasco) reveals that she wants to start a family. Blanca and Max’s (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón and Maxi Iglesias) affair is discovered, and both must bear the consequences.
Grey’s Anatomy: “We Built This City”
ABC, 10pm
The team at Grey Sloan navigates a chaotic first day of surgical rotations amid hospital renovations in the new episode “We Built This City.”
Elsbeth: “Doll Day Afternoon”
CBS, 10pm
When a murder investigation at a famous New York toy store spirals into a hostage crisis, Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) must negotiate with Nolan (guest star David Cross), the hapless ex-con inside, in the new episode “Doll Day Afternoon.”
Friday, Oct. 17
Fire Country
CBS, 8pm
Season Premiere!
In the aftermath of the Zabel Ridge fire, Station 42 faces internal turmoil but must rally together for a high-stakes rescue in the Season 4 premiere “Goodbye for Now.”
Penn & Teller: Fool Us: “Teller Gets a Talk Show”
The CW, 8pm
The magicians attempting to outwit Penn & Teller in the new episode “Teller Gets a Talk Show” include Hollie England, Giancarlo Scalia, Francis Menotti and Gabriel Werlen.
College Football
ESPN & FOX, beginning at 8pm Live
The Nebraska Cornhuskers take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers in Minneapolis for a Big Ten matchup on FOX. The North Carolina Tar Heels are in Berkeley, California, to tussle with the Cal Golden Bears in an ACC clash on ESPN.
Gene Tierney’s Terror
TCM, beginning at 8pm
Catch a Classic!
A pair of thrillers starring Gene Tierney are on tap tonight. First up is Leave Her to Heaven (1945), in which Tierney plays a beautiful but pathologically jealous woman who will go to murderous lengths to ensure no one else can have her husband’s love and attention. For her performance, Tierney earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Next is Black Widow (1954), in which a naive writer is found dead in a Broadway producer’s (Van Heflin) apartment, making him the prime suspect in a murder mystery where everyone has a motive. Tierney played the producer’s wife.
Grey’s Anatomy
HULU
Grey’s Anatomy returned to ABC on Thursday, Oct. 9 and streams next day on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+, for its 22nd season. After last year’s incendiary finale, we’ll find out who lives and who dies when an explosion rocks Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital.
Sheriff Country
CBS, 9pm
New Series!
This spinoff of Fire Country, also set in Edgewater, focuses on Sheriff Mickey Fox (Morena Baccarin), who is the aunt of troublemaker/firefighter Bode Leone (Max Thieriot). The connective tissue tying Sheriff to Fire, aside from the shared location, is established in a crossover with Thieriot and the return of Mickey’s father Wes (W. Earl Brown), a colorful weed dealer shown in Baccarin’s second guest spot on the flagship. “We are a parallel story set in the same location at the same time,” Brown tells us. “There will be a lot of crossover between our two shows.”
Masters of Illusion: “Poker, Liars and the Jaws of Death”
The CW, 9pm
Magicians featured in the new episode “Poker, Liars and the Jaws of Death” include Eric Jones, Adam Wylie, Farrell Dillon, Lucy Darling, Andi Gladwin, Murray Sawchuck, Dreygon and Alexandra.
Scariest House in America: “The Ghoulish Great Lakes”
HGTV, 9pm
Retta tours three scary homes in the Great Lakes, where each of the owners are battling for their chance at a $150,000 makeover by Alison Victoria. It’s between a haunted home with a paranormal portal, a disturbing one-room schoolhouse and a former funeral parlor with chilling surprises.
ART21: Art in the Twenty-First Century
PBS, 9pm
Season Premiere!
The 12th season of the Peabody Award-winning biennial program that allows viewers to watch and learn firsthand from artists as they transform inspiration into art returns to its pre-pandemic commitment to documenting art and artists around the world and will highlight artists living and working in ReykjavÍk, Iceland; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and Bogotá, Colombia; among other locations.
My Haunted Hometown: “Disturbing the Dead”
Travel Channel, 9pm
Doesn’t everyone know you never mess with someone’s final resting place? Respect the dead! Throughout time, most humans have honored their dead in unique ways. The one thing they all have in common is that the final resting place is spiritually sacred. So when the activities of the living lead to disturbing the dead, the results can be terrifying.
Boston Blue
CBS, 10pm
New Series!
This Blue Bloods spinoff stars Donnie Wahlberg reprising his role as Detective Danny Reagan, who takes a position with the Boston Police Department and is paired with Detective Lena Silver (Sonequa Martin-Green), the eldest daughter of a prominent law enforcement family. The series also stars Gloria Reuben, Maggie Lawson, Marcus Scribner, Ernie Hudson and Mika Amonsen.
Saturday, Oct. 18
NASCAR Xfinity Series: United Rentals 250
The CW, 4pm Live
The NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs Round of 8 continues today as drivers compete at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway.
College Football
The CW, ESPN & NBC, beginning at 6:30pm Live
National TV highlights include Washington State at Virginia (The CW), USC at Notre Dame in a rivalry game for the Jeweled Shillelagh trophy (NBC), Lafayette at Oregon State (The CW) and Florida State at Stanford (ESPN).
A Christmas Prayer
Great American Family, 8pm
Original Film!
In A Christmas Prayer, fan favorite Shae Robins plays Natalie, a weary children’s book illustrator who rediscovers her creativity and faith when she secretly fulfills the heartfelt prayer list of a little girl, unknowingly becoming the answer to the girl’s father’s (Christopher Russell) Christmas wish for love, healing and hope.
The Widow’s Payback
Lifetime, 8pm
Original Film!
Inspired by true events, this film follows one determined woman, Amanda Bibbs (played by Queen Sugar’s Bianca Lawson), who spent years seducing the man who murdered her husband when authorities failed to pursue justice for her spouse. Slowly she infiltrated his inner circle, and eventually he disclosed his criminal activities to her. Amanda immediately went to the authorities, providing the key details that would have him arrested.
Andor
Disney+
The two-season Disney+ series follows Cassian Andor from being a reluctant nobody to hero of the Rebel Alliance in a galaxy far, far away. Now streaming. A prequel to Rogue One, the series shows Andor’s transformation from hardscrabble smuggler to hardened intelligence operative and one of the Rebellion’s greatest heroes.
Two for One: John Carpenter
TCM, beginning at 8pm
Catch a Classic!
Tonight, TCM primetime host Ben Mankiewicz is joined by filmmaker John Carpenter (Halloween, The Fog), who introduces two films of his choosing. Carpenter will offer commentary on each film’s significance and its influence on other films, behind-the-scenes stories, and his own personal reflections on them. The films chosen are two classic horror films. First up is Frankenstein (1931), the classic Universal monster movie starring Boris Karloff. Following that is The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), in which Dr. Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) is awaiting execution for murder and tells the story of his desire to create a living being to a priest.
Austin City Limits
PBS, 11pm
In this special presentation, ACL inducts the Kentucky band My Morning Jacket into the ACL Hall of Fame.
Saturday Night Live: “Sabrina Carpenter”
NBC, 11:25pm Live
Singer/actress Sabrina Carpenter does double duty as host and musical guest in tonight’s new episode.