Snuggle season is here, and with that some great TV. So there's no better time to get your watchlist together for the new year, including the best 2026 TV shows.
And the New Year is shaping up to be a pretty exciting one in the telly world. Even New Year's Day alone will see a new season of The Night Manager drop after nine years, as well as a new Harlan Coben novel adaptation for the screen, starring Ruth Jones and James Nesbitt, called Run Away.
A look back at LGBTQ+ representation on the Duffer Brothers show as it draws to a close.
But that's not all. We are getting Legally Blonde TV prequel series Elle in the summer, as well as the return of Industry and Euphoria and the premiere of Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee's new show, How To Get To Heaven From Belfast. Glamour has rounded up the 2026 TV shows we are most excited about.
The Night Manager season 2
Release date: 1 January 2026
Plot: We see an eight-year time jump since the events of The Night Manager season 1 (which aired back in 2016), with Tom Hiddleston's Jonathan Pine working a quiet MI6 surveillance job. His peace is shattered when an old associated of Roper (the villian from season 1, played by Hugh Laurie).
Starring: Returning cast members include Tom Hiddleston, Olivia Coleman, Alistair Petrie (Sex Education), Douglas Hodge (Black Mirror), Michael Nardone (Traces), and Noah Jupe (Honey Boy). Exciting additions for the new instalment include Diego Calva (Babylon), Camila Morrone (Daisy Jones & The Six), Indira Varma, Paul Chahidi (The Serpent Queen), and Hayley Squires (Beau Is Afraid).
Glamour verdict: We've watched the first two episodes and they are just as addictive and action-packed as the first season! It remains to be seen whether the entire series will hold up, but it's great to see Tom Hiddleston back on form.
Run Away
Release date: 1 January 2026
Starring: James Nesbitt, Ruth Jones, Minnie Driver, Alfred Enoch and Lucian Msamati
Plot: The latest Harlan Coben novel adaptation to TV sees James Nesbitt star as a father whose life unravels when his daughter Paige runs away. If the success of Coben series such as Fool Me Once and Missing You is anything to go by, Run Away is one to bookmark for the New Year.
Glamour verdict: We won't say too much, but the opening scene is truly nuts and gripping, in true Coben style. It's also amazing to see Ruth Jones on stellar form post Gavin and Stacey.
Agatha Christie's Seven Dials
Release date: 15 January 2026
Plot: Adapted from the Agatha Christie novel of the same name, Seven Dials follows the story of a country house party where a prank turned deadly, seeing a man die in his bed and the partygoers wake up shocked the next morning. Lady Eileen “Bundle” Brent is suspicious of the death and the circumstances around it, and ends up journeying down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories to find the truth.
Starring: Mia McKenna-Bruce, Helena Bonham-Carter, Martin Freeman, Corey Mylchreest, Ed Bluemel and Nabhaan Rizwan
Glamour verdict: Mia is fabulous as the Nancy Drew-style protagonist, and has hilarious comic chemistry with her onscreen mum Helena Bonham-Carter, who without a doubt has all the wittiest lines, delivered with characteristic flair.
The Blame
Release date: TBC, most likely Autumn 2026
Starring: Michelle Keegan, Douglas Booth, Lee Byford, Nathan Mensah
Plot: Adapted from the popular crime thriller novel by Charlotte Langley, the ITV series will follow the story of a pair of police detectives who are tasked with solving the murder of a young ice-skater. At the same time, we see them encounter the institutional bias and misogyny festering behind the scenes of the police and contend with how to best fight it.
Glamour verdict: We were lucky enough to visit the set of The Blame during filming, and we can guarantee drama and Michelle Keegan's on-screen magic and sass. Our lips are sealed, otherwise.
Shrinking season 3
Release date: 28 January 2026
Plot: This brilliant comedy series centred on grief is back for a third instalment. The synopsis for it reads: “Shrinking follows a grieving therapist (played by Jason Segel) who starts to break the rules and tell his clients exactly what he thinks. Ignoring his training and ethics, he finds himself making huge, tumultuous changes to people’s lives … including his own.”
Starring: Harrison Ford, Jason Segel, Christa Miller, Jessica Williams, Brett Goldstein, Damon Wayans Jr., Wendie Malick and Cobie Smulders, along with new cast additions Jeff Daniels and Michael J. Fox.
Industry season 4
Release date: 12 January 2026
Starring: Myha’la, Marisa Abela, Kit Harington, Ken Leung (Eric Tao), Sagar Radia (Rishi Ramdani) and Miriam Petche are all set to return, with new casting additions including Mad Men's Kiernan Shipka, Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton and Ted Lasso's Toheeb Jimoh and Max Minghella.
Plot: The synopsis for the much-awaited fourth season reads as follows: “As Yasmin navigates her relationship with tech founder Sir Henry Muck (Kit Harington) and Harper is pulled into the orbit of enigmatic executive Whitney Halberstram (Max Minghella), their twisted friendship begins to warp and ignite under the pressure of money, power and the desire to be on top”.
How To Get To Heaven From Belfast
Release date: February 2026
Plot: We are so excited about Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee's upcoming TV series, which explores the journey of three lifelong friends thrown back together when the fourth member of their old friendship group dies.
Starring: Roísín Gallagher, Sinéad Keenan, Caoilfhionn Dunne (A Thousand Blows, Industry), Tom Basden (The Ballad of Wallis Island, After Life), Art Campion (Derry Girls, Blue Lights), Michelle Fairley (Gangs of London, Game of Thrones), Josh Finan (The Responder, Say Nothing), Bronagh Gallagher (Brassic, Pulp Fiction), Darragh Hand (Heartstopper, Dear England), Ardal O’Hanlon (The Woman in the Wall, Death in Paradise), Natasha O’Keeffe (Peaky Blinders, The Wheel of Time) and Emmett J. Scanlan (MobLand).
Glamour verdict: Certainly a darker series than Derry Girls, but a similar dry humour, banging soundtrack and complex depictions of female friendships.
Margo's Got Money Troubles
Release date: 15 April 2026
Starring: Elle Fanning, Nicole Kidman, Michelle Pfeiffer, Thaddea Graham
Plot: Adapted for the screen from Rufi Thorpe's hilarious and much-loved novel of the same name, the story of broke single mum – and child of an ex-pro wrestler and a Hooters waitress – Margo, who will be played by Elle Fanning. The most hardworking actor in Hollywood right now, Nicole Kidman, is set to play her mum.
Euphoria season 3
Release date: April 2026
Plot: After the dramatic events of Euphoria season 1 and 2, which saw teenagers in a Californian high school navigate addiction, social media, romance, sex and trauma, we rejoin the friendship group five years later.
Starring: Sharon Stone is set to enter the Euphoria world for season 3, while Zendaya will star once again as Rue, with other returning fan favourites including Hunter Schafer, Eric Dane, Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney, Alexa Demie, Maude Apatow, and Colman Domingo.
In terms of newcomers Rosalía, Martha Kelly, Chloe Cherry, Toby Wallace, Marshawn Lynch (Bottoms), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Anna Van Patten, Kadeem Hardison, James Landry Hébert, Priscilla Delgado and Darrell Britt-Gibson will all be joining Sharon Stone for the third instalment.
Elle
Release date: Summer 2026
Plot: We will see Reese Witherspoon's legendary Legally Blonde character Elle Woods navigate high school back in the 1990s. We. Can't. Wait.
Starring: Lexi Minetree, June Diane Raphael, Tom Everett Scott, Chandler Kinney, Gabrielle Policano, Jacob Moskovitz, Zac Looker
The Bear season 5
Release date: Summer 2026
Starring: The cast has not yet been confirmed, but we expect the usual suspects to be back, including Jeremy Allen White as moody head chef Carmy, the brilliant Ayo Edebiri as Sydney, Abby Elliott, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Matty Matheson, Liza Colón-Zayas and Lionel Boyce, and with a bit of luck we'll see guest stars such as Jamie Lee Curtis, Jon Bernthal and Oliver Platt again too.
Plot: Lots of loose ends were decidedly not tied up at end of this year's The Bear chapter, season 4. Will Sydney leave the restaurant for pastures new? Will Carmy ever definitively sort his love life and wider personal life out? Most crucially: will the restaurant stay open another season? All questions need to be answered ASAP.
House of the Dragon season 3
Release date: Summer 2026. Series star Matt Smith has teased that it will drop in August 2026.
Starring: Emma D'Arcy, Olivia Cooke, Matt Smith, Ewan Mitchell. New castings for season 3 include James Norton, Tommy Flanagan and Ben Fogler.
Plot: It has been confirmed that series 3 will cover the events of the book Fire & Blood, part of the prequel novel series by George R. R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire.
Something Very Bad Is Going To Happen
Release date: TBC
Starring: Camila Morrone (Daisy Jones & The Six, The Night Manager) and Adam DiMarco (The White Lotus, Overcompensating), Jennifer Jason Leigh (Fargo, Annihilation), Ted Levine (Monk, Big Sky), Gus Birney (Shining Vale, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window), Jeff Wilbusch (Unorthodox, Oslo), Karla Crome (The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hynde, Lazarus) and Zlatko Burić (Triangle of Sadness).
Plot: Off the back of the epic ending of Stranger Things, series creators The Duffer Brothers are back in 2026 with a new horror drama TV series for Netflix. Camila Morrone and Adam DiMarco play an engaged couple, and the series will follow the story of the lead up to their characters' ill-fated wedding.
Kill Jackie
Release date: TBC
Starring: Catherine Zeta Jones, Daniel Ings, Darci Shaw, Raff Law
Plot: We are absolutely buzzing for this. Catherine Zeta Jones will star in Amazon Prime TV series Kill Jackie, a former international drug dealer who left her life of crime behind to become an art dealer. But when a group of assassins begin to pursue her, she must return to her former self to survive. The series is adapted from bestselling novel, The Price You Pay.
