2020–21 United States network television schedule explained

The 2020–21 network television schedule for the five major English-language commercial broadcast networks in the United States covers the prime time hours from September 2020 to August 2021. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning series, new series, and series canceled after the 2019–20 television season.

Fox was the first to announce its fall schedule on May 11, 2020,^[1] followed by The CW on May 14,^[2] CBS on May 19,^[3] NBC on June 16,^[4] and ABC on June 17, 2020.^[5]

PBS is not included at all, as member television stations have local flexibility over most of their schedules and broadcast times for network shows may vary. Ion Television and MyNetworkTV are also not included because both network schedules comprise syndicated reruns (with limited original programming on the latter). This is the last season that The CW did not program primetime on Saturday evenings (however it does offer network programming on Saturdays in the following season).

New series are highlighted in bold.

On January 6, 2021, all of ABC, CBS and NBC's programming was preempted in favor of news coverage of the January 6 United States Capitol attack in Washington D.C.

All times are U.S. Eastern and Pacific Time (except for some live sports or events). Subtract one hour for Central, Mountain, Alaska, and Hawaii-Aleutian times.

Each of the 30 highest-rated shows is listed with its rank and rating as determined by Nielsen Media Research.^[6]

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

Each of the major television networks in the United States had initially planned for their upfront presentations to be made to the public in mid-May, a tradition going back to the Golden Age of Television. Due to concerns caused by COVID-19, most major networks and cable network groups canceled their public upfront events due to both public health concerns, and stay-at-home orders which effectively prevented them from going forward. It was expected most of the upfront announcements would be either press releases or virtual video events via videotelephony, and could be delayed due to pilots being unable to be produced, along with an overall decline in advertising.^[7] NBC carried traditional upfront content on July 16, 2020, blended in as a part of , though a majority of the network's affiliates pre-empted the event (it aired the next day as a special airing across all of NBCUniversal's cable networks at the same time in primetime).

On May 1, the Television Critics Association cancelled its summer 2020 press tour, originally scheduled for July 28 through August 13 (during the now-rescheduled 2020 Summer Olympics), as the organization was unsure it could occur at all due to public gathering restrictions and an anticipated lack of any scripted programming output, even in pilot form, to promote by that time period.^[8] The TCA cancellation complicated any plans by the networks to build buzz about their upcoming schedules, while the move of the 2020 Summer Olympics to 2021 nullified any plans NBC had to use the Games to lead into their new television season.

Delays in production as a result of the pandemic resulted in many shows being pushed over from their intended Summer 2020 premieres. CBS was the first network to push the thirty-second season premiere of The Amazing Race as a part of its contingency plan to preserve programming for fall. The same day, ABC announced that it had delayed the sixteenth season of its summer staple series The Bachelorette to a tentative fall launch, while sister-series Bachelor in Paradise had been postponed indefinitely. The following month, Fox and The CW followed suit by announcing that both the networks would be delaying most of their original scripted premieres to a cycle beginning in January 2021, and their fall lineup would consist primarily of acquisitions and delayed summer series.^[1] ^[2]

In light of further delays in production, CBS moved up S.W.A.T. to a fall premiere to replace Survivor, while the latter had been postponed its production of the forty-first season to spring 2021 and was replaced by aforementioned The Amazing Race.^[9] ^[10] On August 26, 2020, the network further modified its schedule by deciding to push the premieres of all scripted programming to November and air acquired and encore programming in early fall instead.^[11] Similarly, NBC altered its schedule on August 12, 2020, by replacing The Voice with American Ninja Warrior on Monday nights.

On September 16, 2020, ABC announced that the network would not be moving forward with the second season of Stumptown, a decision that came in reversal to its May 2020 renewal. COVID-related production delays that would not have allowed the series to be ready for telecast before April 2021 (the end of the broadcast season) were cited as the primary reason behind the cancellation.

Because of the pandemic-related production halts, this is the third time in the history of American television where the start of the television season was delayed due to issues outside of the control of the major television networks; the last two instances occurred in the 1988–89 season (which was delayed due to the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike) the 2001–02 season (which was affected by news coverage of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001), and the fourth was due to the ongoing 2023–24 season (which was delayed due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike), and the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.

In spite of the fact that an effective vaccine for the COVID-19 virus was not available until the first few months of 2021, most scripted shows were able to resume production in the autumn of 2020. This was accomplished by having all cast and crew members take daily COVID-19 tests during production to ensure no transmission of the virus, not having fans in the audience during tapings, and often writing scenes to reduce the total number of people on set at a given time. The 2020-21 season saw a diffused approach to COVID-19; some series acknowledged the pandemic and had storylines that addressed the issues from it, while others did not reference it at all. Chuck Lorre said publicly that his CBS shows would not take place in a setting where COVID-19 existed, something that he's stuck with going into 2023.

Sunday

Network		7:00 p.m.	7:30 p.m.	8:00 p.m.	8:30 p.m.	9:00 p.m.	9:30 p.m.	10:00 p.m.	10:30 p.m.
ABC	Fall	America's Funniest Home Videos		Supermarket Sweep		Who Wants to Be a Millionaire		Card Sharks
	Winter			Who Wants to Be a Millionaire		Card Sharks		The Rookie
	Mid-winter			American Idol				The Rookie
	Late winter							Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
	Spring							The Rookie
	Summer			Celebrity Family Feud		The Chase		To Tell the Truth
CBS	Fall	NFL on CBS	60 Minutes		CBS Sunday Night Movies
	Mid-fall	NFL on CBS	60 Minutes						NCIS
	Winter	60 Minutes		*The Equalizer*
	Summer			Big Brother		Love Island
	Late summer			Big Brother		*The Equalizer*
The CW	Fall	Local programming		Pandora		Whose Line Is It Anyway?		Local programming
	Mid-fall			Pandora		The Outpost
	Winter			Batwoman		Charmed
	Spring			Legends of Tomorrow		Batwoman
	Summer					*Wellington Paranormal*	Dead Pixels
	Late summer					*Wellington Paranormal*	*Wellington Paranormal*
Fox	Fall	Fox NFL	The OT	The Simpsons	Bless the Harts	Bob's Burgers	Family Guy
	Winter	*Cherries Wild*	Bless the Harts		*The Great North*
	Spring	The Simpsons	Bless the Harts
	Summer	Duncanville	*HouseBroken*
	Late summer	Lego Masters
NBC	Fall	Football Night in America		NBC Sunday Night Football
	Winter	Weakest Link		The Wall		Chicago Med		Dateline NBC
	Late winter	The Voice				Ellen's Game of Games		Good Girls
	Spring	Ellen's Game of Games		Ellen's Game of Games		Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist		Good Girls
	Summer	NBC Sports programming

Monday

Network		8:00 p.m.	8:30 p.m.	9:00 p.m.	9:30 p.m.	10:00 p.m.
ABC	Fall	Dancing with the Stars				*Emergency Call*
	Mid-fall	Dancing with the Stars				The Good Doctor
	Late fall	Monday Night Countdown	Monday Night Football
	Winter	The Bachelor				The Good Doctor
	Spring	American Idol
	Mid-spring	The Wonderful World of Disney
	Late spring	The Bachelorette				*The Celebrity Dating Game*
	Summer	Bachelor in Paradise				*The Ultimate Surfer*
CBS	Fall	Big Brother		One Day at a Time		*Manhunt: Deadly Games*
	Late fall	The Neighborhood	Bob Hearts Abishola	All Rise		Bull
	Spring					Bull
	Summer			Young Sheldon	*United States of Al*
The CW	Fall	Whose Line Is It Anyway?	Whose Line Is It Anyway?			Local programming
	Winter	All American		Black Lightning
	Late winter	Bulletproof
	Spring	All American
	Late spring	All American		*The Republic of Sarah*
	Summer	Roswell, New Mexico		*The Republic of Sarah*
	Late summer	Roswell, New Mexico
Fox	Fall	*L.A.'s Finest*		*Filthy Rich*
	Late fall	*L.A.'s Finest*
	Winter	9-1-1
	Late winter			America's Most Wanted
	Spring
	Summer	Hell's Kitchen: Young Guns		*HouseBroken*	Duncanville
NBC	Early fall	American Ninja Warrior				Dateline NBC
	Fall	The Voice				Weakest Link
	Winter	Ellen's Game of Games		The Wall		Weakest Link
	Late winter	The Voice				*Debris*
	Spring	American Ninja Warrior				*Small Fortune*
	Summer	American Ninja Warrior				The Wall

Tuesday

Network		8:00 p.m.	8:30 p.m.	9:00 p.m.	9:30 p.m.	10:00 p.m.
ABC	Fall	The Bachelorette				*Big Sky*
	Winter	The Wonderful World of Disney
	Mid-winter	To Tell the Truth		Black-ish	Mixed-ish
	Late winter	To Tell the Truth				*Soul of a Nation*
	Spring	*Pooch Perfect*				*Big Sky*
	Mid-spring					To Tell the Truth
	Late spring	The Goldbergs	*Home Economics*	The Conners	Black-ish	To Tell the Truth
	Summer	Bachelor in Paradise				*The Ultimate Surfer*
CBS	Fall	NCIS		FBI		*The FBI Declassified*
	Mid-fall			FBI
	Summer			Love Island
	Late summer			FBI
The CW	Fall	*Swamp Thing*		Tell Me a Story		Local programming
	Winter	Two Sentence Horror Stories		*Trickster*
	Late winter	The Flash		*Superman & Lois*
	Spring			Supergirl
	Late spring			*Superman & Lois*
	Summer	Stargirl		Supergirl
Fox	Fall			*Next*
	Winter	The Resident		Prodigal Son
	Late winter	*Holmes Family Effect*
	Spring	The Resident		Prodigal Son
	Late spring	Lego Masters		Mental Samurai
	Summer	Lego Masters		*Fantasy Island*
NBC	Fall	The Voice		This Is Us		*Transplant*
	Winter	Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist				*Nurses*
	Late winter	*Young Rock*	*Kenan*			New Amsterdam
	Spring	The Voice				New Amsterdam
	Summer	America's Got Talent				Capital One College Bowl

Wednesday

Network		8:00 p.m.	8:30 p.m.	9:00 p.m.	9:30 p.m.	10:00 p.m.
ABC	Fall	The Goldbergs	American Housewife	The Conners	Black-ish	*The Con*
	Mid-fall	The Goldbergs	American Housewife	The Conners	Black-ish	For Life
	Late fall	The Great Christmas Light Fight
	Winter	The Goldbergs	American Housewife	The Conners	*Call Your Mother*
	Late winter		American Housewife			*The Con*
	Spring		*Home Economics*			A Million Little Things
	Late spring	Press Your Luck		The $100,000 Pyramid		A Million Little Things
	Early summer					Card Sharks
	Summer					Match Game
	Late summer					*Superstar*
CBS	Fall	Big Brother		Various programming		*48 Hours: Suspicion*
	Mid-fall	The Amazing Race		SEAL Team		S.W.A.T.
	Winter	Tough as Nails
	Spring	Kids Say the Darndest Things
	Late spring	Kids Say the Darndest Things		S.W.A.T.
	Summer	Big Brother		Love Island		S.W.A.T.
	Late summer	Big Brother		*House Calls with Dr. Phil*		48 Hours
The CW	Fall	*Devils*		Coroner		Local programming
	Winter	Riverdale		Nancy Drew
	Spring	*Kung Fu*		Nancy Drew
	Summer	*Kung Fu*		In the Dark
	Late summer	Riverdale		In the Dark
Fox	Fall	The Masked Singer		*I Can See Your Voice*
	Winter	*The Masked Dancer*		Name That Tune
	Late winter	The Masked Singer		*Game of Talents*
	Spring	MasterChef: Legends		*Crime Scene Kitchen*
	Summer	MasterChef: Legends
NBC	Fall	Chicago Med		Chicago Fire		Chicago P.D.
NBC	Summer	America's Got Talent		*Family Game Fight!*		Chicago P.D.

Note: Season 2 of Stumptown was originally scheduled to premiere in fall 2020, but it was canceled and was replaced by For Life.

Thursday

Network		8:00 p.m.	8:30 p.m.	9:00 p.m.	9:30 p.m.	10:00 p.m.
ABC	Fall	Celebrity Family Feud		Press Your Luck		Match Game
	Mid-fall	Station 19		Grey's Anatomy		A Million Little Things
	Winter	*Celebrity Wheel of Fortune*		The Chase		*The Hustler*
	Late winter	Station 19		Grey's Anatomy		A Million Little Things
	Spring	Station 19		Grey's Anatomy		*Rebel*
	Summer	*When Nature Calls with Helen Mirren*		Holey Moley		*The Hustler*
	Mid-summer	Holey Moley		*When Nature Calls with Helen Mirren*		*The Hustler*
CBS	Fall	Big Brother		Various programming
	Mid-fall	Young Sheldon	*B Positive*	Mom	The Unicorn
	Winter		*B Positive*		The Unicorn	*Clarice*
	Spring		*United States of Al*		*B Positive*	*Clarice*
	Summer	Big Brother		Love Island		Bull
	Late summer	Big Brother		The Neighborhood	*B Positive*	Bull
The CW	Fall	Supernatural		The Outpost		Local programming
	Winter	*Walker*		Legacies
	Summer	*Walker*		The Outpost
	Late summer	Coroner		The Outpost
Fox	Fall	Fox NFL Thursday	Thursday Night Football
	Winter	Hell's Kitchen: Las Vegas		*Call Me Kat*	Last Man Standing	Local programming
	Spring	Hell's Kitchen: Las Vegas		Last Man Standing	The Moodys
	Mid-spring	Name That Tune		Last Man Standing	*Let's Be Real*
	Late spring	Beat Shazam		Lego Masters
	Summer	MasterChef: Legends		*Call Me Kat*
NBC	Fall	Superstore	Superstore			Dateline NBC
	Winter	*Mr. Mayor*	Superstore			Dateline NBC
	Spring	Manifest
	Summer	Making It		Good Girls
	Late summer	Brooklyn Nine-Nine		Making It

Notes:

NBC aired Connecting from October 8 to October 29, 2020.
The first episode of Connecting aired at 8:00 pm on Thursday, October 8, 2020.
The second episode of Connecting aired at 9:00 pm on Thursday, October 15, 2020.
The third episode of Connecting aired at 9:30 pm on Thursday, October 15, 2020.
The fourth episode of Connecting aired at 8:30 pm on Thursday, October 29, 2020.

Friday

Network		8:00 p.m.	8:30 p.m.	9:00 p.m.	9:30 p.m.	10:00 p.m.
ABC	Fall	Shark Tank		20/20
	Spring	*Emergency Call*
	Summer	Shark Tank
CBS	Fall	The Greatest #AtHome Videos		Undercover Boss		Blue Bloods
	Late fall	MacGyver		Magnum P.I.
	Summer	*Secret Celebrity Renovation*		Love Island
	Late summer	*Secret Celebrity Renovation*		The Greatest #AtHome Videos
The CW	Fall	Masters of Illusion	Masters of Illusion	*World's Funniest Animals*	*World's Funniest Animals*	Local programming
	Late fall	The Christmas Caroler Challenge
	Winter	Whose Line Is It Anyway?	Whose Line Is It Anyway?
	Spring	Charmed		Dynasty
	Summer	Burden of Truth		Dynasty
Fox		WWE Friday Night SmackDown
NBC	Fall	American Ninja Warrior				Dateline NBC
	Late fall	The Blacklist		Dateline NBC
	Summer	American Ninja Warrior				Dateline NBC

Saturday

Network		8:00 p.m.	8:30 p.m.	9:00 p.m.	10:00 p.m.
ABC	Fall	Saturday Night Football
	Winter	NBA Countdown	NBA Saturday Primetime
	Late winter	Shark Tank		American Idol
	Spring	NBA Countdown	NBA Saturday Primetime
	Late spring	Celebrity Family Feud		Various programming	The Good Doctor
	Summer	America's Funniest Home Videos		Shark Tank	The Good Doctor
CBS	Fall	Crimetime Saturday			48 Hours
	Mid-fall	*Manhunt: Deadly Games*
	Late fall	Crimetime Saturday
	Spring	*Superstar Racing Experience*
	Summer	Crimetime Saturday
Fox	Fall	Fox College Football
	Winter	9-1-1		Name That Tune	Local programming
	Spring	The Masked Singer		*Game of Talents*
	Late spring	Baseball Night in America
	Summer	Fox Sports programming
NBC	Fall	Various programming		Ellen's Game of Games	SNL Vintage
	Late fall	Ellen's Game of Games		The Wall
	Spring
	Late spring	NHL on NBC
	Summer	America's Got Talent			Dateline Saturday Mystery
	Late summer	Various programming		America's Got Talent

By network

Note: Series that were originally intended to air in 2019–20 but were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic are indicated using .