The 5 New Shows You Can’t Miss in April

TV Lists
The 5 New Shows You Can’t Miss in April

Most unfortunately, it took a global pandemic, but it appears that TV is finally slowing down. As the coming months progress, we won’t have the constant barrage of new shows and new streaming platforms to contend with. Television productions are shut down for the foreseeable future and viewers will feel that impact in the coming months. Even as we went to press with this column, HBO moved their miniseries I Know This Much is True from April to May.

But as always the Paste TV team is on the case. This month, we’ll be covering the premiere of HBO’s Run, Apple TV+’s Home Before Dark, FX on Hulu’s Mrs. America and attempting answer TV’s greatest question of all: What is Quibi?

But that still leaves viewer with so much TV. Here are the five new under-the-radar shows you can’t miss this April:

1. Broke

Executive Producers: Alex Herschlag, Jennie Snyder Urman, Joanna Klein, Ben Silverman, Jaime Camil
Stars: Jaime Camil, Pauley Perrette, Natasha Leggero, Izzy Diaz, Antonio Raul Corbo
Premiere Date: April 2 at 9:30 p.m. on CBS

Look I’m not going to lie—the premise of this new CBS comedy doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. Elizabeth (Natasha Leggero) and her wealthy husband Javier (Jaime Camil) move in with Elizabeth’s sister Jackie (Pauley Perrette) after Javier’s family cuts him off. CBS has yet to make the comedy available to critics, and the clips we can watch have that canned laugh track vibe. But here’s what I do know: the series stars Camil who was utterly charming and hilarious as Rogelio on Jane the Virgin and Pauley Perrette, who was consistently the best thing about NCIS. The series comes from Jennie Snyder Urman, who created Jane the Virgin and Alex Herschlag who counts Will & Grace and Modern Family among his credits. That’s a lot of good will being aimed at one half-hour series. Maybe we all need the comfort of a conventional network comedy right now.


2. The Baker and The Beauty

Executive Producers: Dean Georgaris, David Frankel
Stars: Victor Rasuk, Nathalie Kelley, Carlos Gómez, Dan Bucatinsky, Lisa Vidal, David Del Rio, Belissa Escobedo and Michelle Veintimilla
Premiere Date: April 13 at 10 p.m. on ABC

You kind of have to love this one based on the title alone. It sounds like a show that 30 Rock would have dreamed up. Never has a title been so literal. Daniel (Victor Rasuk) is working at his family’s bakery in Miami when he meets international superstar Noa Hamilton (Nathalie Kelley). Can a romance between a princess and a pauper work? I’m guessing yes because they built a whole series around it. ABC is pairing this with The Bachelor Presents: Listen to Your Heart, a spin-off of The Bachelor franchise where the contestants find love through music (no I’m not making this up). This one-two combo of cheesy romance and over-the-top reality shenanigans sounds like the perfect escape.


3. The Innocence Files

Executive Producers: Liz Garbus, Alex Gibney, Roger Ross Williams
Premiere Date: April 15 on Netflix

This nine-episode series follows cases that the Innocence Project, a non-profit organization founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, has taken on in an effort to overturn wrongful convictions. The series, which will be broken into three parts—the evidence, the witness, and the prosecution—follows the cases of Chester Hollman III, Kenneth Wyniemko, Alfred Dewayne Brown, Thomas Haynesworth, Franky Carrillo, Levon Brooks, Kennedy Brewer, and Keith Harward. This month also sees the premiere of The Justice Project April 5 on Oxygen. This special follows Kim Kardashian West as she advocates for reduced sentences for people who she believes the justice system has treated unfairly. The special promises to show viewers a very different side of the reality star.


4. Defending Jacob

Executive Producers: Mark Bomback, Morten Tyldum, Chris Evans
Stars: Chris Evans, Michelle Dockery, Jaeden Martell, Cherry Jones, Pablo Schreiber, Betty Gabriel, Sakina Jaffrey and J.K. Simmons
Premiere Date: April 24 on Apple TV+

Where can you find Lady Mary married to Captain America? Ah the joys of Apple TV+! Based on the 2012 novel of the same name by William Landy, the eight-episode series follows Assistant District Attorney Andrew Barber (Chris Evans) and his wife Laura (Michelle Dockery) as they must fact the possibility that their beloved son Jacob (Jaeden Martell) is guilty of murder. The series will premiere three episodes on April 24 and then a new episode will debut every Friday.


5. Never Have I Ever

Executive Producers: Mindy Kaling
Stars: Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Poorna Jagannathan, Richa Moorjani
Premiere Date: April 27 on Netflix

Mindy Kaling mines her own childhood for the story of Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), a first-generation Indian teen who wants nothing more than to fit in with her classmates complete with party invites and a boyfriend. Devi has a short temper that gets her into trouble. To find the actress to play the lead character, Kaling posted her casting search online and received over 15,000 applicants before she found Ramakrishnan.


Amy Amatangelo, the TV Gal®, is a Boston-based freelance writer, a member of the Television Critics Association and the Assistant TV Editor for Paste. She wasn’t allowed to watch much TV as a child and now her parents have to live with this as her career. You can follow her on Twitter (@AmyTVGal).

For all the latest TV news, reviews, lists and features, follow @Paste_TV.

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