2025 TV Preview: The Most Anticipated TV Shows of 2025

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2025 has already give us some really good TV—the return of Severance and arrivals of The Pitt and Paradise chief among them. These first few weeks have just been a prelude to all the exciting television coming our way throughout the year, though, from returning favorites (Andor, The White Lotus, The Bear) to promising rookies (Alien: Earth, The Studio). The flood of new TV has maybe slowed down a small bit as companies reevaluate their streaming plans, but it’s still torrential, and impossible to navigate without some help. So consider our 2025 TV preview a guide to the waters ahead. Here are the TV shows we’re most looking forward to this year.

The White Lotus

Network: HBO (Streaming on Max)
Premiere Date: February 16
Status: Returning Series

The White Lotus‘s third season moves to Thailand, but despite the new locale you can expect the show’s signature hallmarks to return: obliviously rich guests, an endlessly suffering staff, exploited locals, and yes, at least one corpse. Based on the trailer, the season’s new crop of guests includes Jason Isaacs and Parker Posey as the heads of a wealthy Southern family about to go destitute; Leslie Bibb, Carrie Coon, and Michelle Monaghan as friends since high school on a girls’ trip; Walton Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood as a couple with a big age gap; Tayme Thapthimthong as a resort security guard struggling with the morality of his job; and Natasha Rothwell returning as Belinda, the spa director of the Maui White Lotus from season one. Who knew a show about the worst people in the world blithely trampling on the lives of the working class and native populations while not growing or changing one single bit could actually be funny? We’ll see if the formula works once again when season 3 starts in a couple of weeks.—Garrett Martin

The Righteous Gemstones

Network: HBO (Streaming on Max)
Premiere Date: March
Status: Returning Series

Danny McBride’s latest HBO series comes to an end this year, and the only consolation is that he and his partners Jody Hill and David Gordon Green will probably be back again with a new future classic show on HBO within a few years. Gemstones is their third hit in a row, and perhaps the best of the bunch—a scathing, hilarious mockery of televangelism, anchored by a tremendous cast, and with the kind of keen insight about the South and its relationship to religion that only people who grew up there could have. Details have been kept tight on Season 4—there’s not even a trailer or specific premiere date yet, despite arriving in just a few weeks. But after having subplots about pro wrestling, stockcar racing, and monster trucks over the last two seasons, I’m going to guess that professional bass fishing will somehow play a part in it.—Garrett Martin

The Studio

Network: Apple TV+
Premiere Date: March 26
Status: New Series

Critics, entertainment journalists, and Hollywood types seem to love showbiz satire way more than viewers do. To wit: HBO’s Hollywood tentpole parody The Franchise, which was produced by big names like Armando Iannucci and Sam Mendes and yet sank like a stone when its first and only season started last October. Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Apple hope to buck that trend with The Studio, about a new exec trying to keep a storied studio afloat amid the streaming disruption and constant culture wars. Rogen surrounds himself with a comedy legend in Catherine O’Hara, the always fantastic Kathryn Hahn, and an All-Star comedy utility player in Ike Barinholtz, so it’ll take some effort to make this show not funny. Expect cameos from the likes of Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, and Steve Buscemi, and hope for something closer to Altman’s The Player than Eszterhas’ Burn Hollywood Burn.—Garrett Martin

Hacks

Network: Max
Premiere Date: TBD
Status: Returning Series

Critical darling Hacks, created by Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky, follows the fraught professional partnership between Deborah Vance, a legendary stand-up comedian (Jean Smart) and Ava, the millennial writer she hires to punch up her act (Hannah Einbinder). Each season has been sharper and funnier and more devastating than the last, earning the dramedy 16 Emmy nominations in 2024, and setting the stage for an explosive season 4. Specifics are still under wraps, but Statsky has teased that Deborah and Ava will butt heads in “ways they never have”––a chilling thought, especially after that season 3 cliffhanger. How much further can this volatile dynamic go before it implodes? We’re about to find out.—Angelina Mazza

The Bear

Network: Hulu/FX
Premiere Date: TBD
Status: Returning Series

After The Bear’s first two excellent seasons and a slightly less good third one, all signs indicate that the series will be returning to the kitchen later this year. Things left off with Carmen Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) and his restaurant on the ropes, as his increasing obsession with perfection has alienated his friends and family. Hopefully, the next batch of episodes will return to what made the first two seasons fantastic by delivering a blood-pressure-raising gastronomy gauntlet that also serves up satisfying payoffs for these characters. Considering that series creator Christopher Storer and the rest of the cast and crew are back for the fourth season, here’s hoping this series will continue to cook. —Elijah Gonzalez

Alien: Earth

Network: Hulu/FX
Premiere Date: TBD
Status: New Series

While Alien’s Xenomorphs have long since breached containment from the film franchise into videogames, comics, books, and more, the perfect organism has still yet to appear on the small screen. That will change later this year when Noah Hawley’s spin-off finally hits FX and Hulu. Set in 2120, two years before the events of the original movie, Alien: Earth is about how those no-good aliens got to, well, Earth. While this premise is a little strange considering how much of the Alien series is about preventing these ghastly critters from ever getting back home, apparently, they actually did this before Ripley’s initial encounter. Despite some strangeness around setup, it’s encouraging that Noah Hawley of Fargo (2014) fame is the one behind this long-gestating prequel, and doubly so considering how outspoken he’s been that the show will dig into some of the series’ more interesting themes around class warfare and evil corporations. Alien has taken many forms over the years, and here’s hoping Alien: Earth will prove a worthwhile evolution. —Elijah Gonzalez

Andor

Network: Disney+
Premiere Date: TBD
Status: Returning Series

All these damn Star Wars can get a little confusing at this point, but Andor stands above all the rest. The first season of Tony Gilroy’s show explored the morally dubious side of rebellion and the stultifying bureaucratic aspect of the Empire. It definitely had its share of “gee whiz” moments, but it was a little deeper than this franchise usually gets, touching on real issues through stories about prison labor and the class structure of that galaxy far, far away. And it’s perhaps the best acted Star Wars, top to bottom, yet, with Fiona Shaw, Genevieve O’Reilly, and Denise Gough as stand-outs, and Diego Luna grounding everything as the namesake spy introduced in Rogue One. As Luthen Rael, a deep undercover Rebel leader willing to do terrible things in the name of the cause, Stellan Skarsgård gives one of the all-time best Star Wars performances while depicting a moral complexity that too rarely peaks out from beneath the space opera adventure. Hopefully the second season can match the first.—Garrett Martin

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Network: HBO (Streaming on Max)
Premiere Date: TBD
Status: New Series

Although it isn’t surprising given Game of Thrones’ massive popularity, HBO remains keen on Westeros. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a new series set in this same fantasy universe that will adapt the Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, a prequel story that follows Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) and Prince Aegon Targaryen (Dexter Sol Ansell) as the two embark on adventures. Considering the story will mostly be focused on this pair and their travels instead of a massive cast, it’s probably fair to assume the scope here will be slightly less massive than Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. Thankfully, this may prove beneficial, as it could allow this story to find its place outside its predecessor’s shadow. And maybe that also means it will be released at a much more reasonable pace than its sister spin-off, House of the Dragon, which hasn’t even started filming its next season yet. While you’d be forgiven for never wanting to return to this world after Game of Thrones’ disastrous final season, it seems as though A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms may be trying to do its own thing. —Elijah Gonzalez

The Rehearsal

Network: HBO (Streaming on Max)
Premiere Date: TBD
Status: Returning Series

Having barely recovered from the fever dream that was The Curse, it’s both exciting and alarming to hear that more of Nathan Fielder’s bizarre antics are right around the corner, as The Rehearsal is slated to return to HBO this year. Last season began with Fielder helping real-life people “rehearse” for upcoming life events before devolving into something far harder to describe as our host (or at least his on-screen character) began questioning the usefulness and morality of this reality TV premise. I’m not exactly sure how you follow up on something that so feverishly went off the rails, but considering how consistently Fielder has taken us to outrageous places, I’m quite interested to see where the latest season goes. —Elijah Gonzalez

The Last of Us

Network: HBO (Streaming on Max)
Premiere Date: TBD
Status: Returning Series

Like the videogames it’s based on, HBO’s The Last of Us won a whole bunch of awards and generated a whole lot of discourse when it came out back in 2023. It followed Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), two unlikely companions forced to face a post-apocalyptic America full of fungal zombies and untrustworthy humans. Following the end of their previous journey, the next season will hone in on the aftermath of Joel’s big decision as it adapts Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II. It will be interesting to see how TV audiences react to what’s in store, as despite massive sales and critical praise, the game proved a controversial sequel for some well-founded reasons (its overbearingly nihilistic worldview, torture porn, and curious political subtext) and quite a few less rational ones (culture war nonsense). Love it or hate it, this upcoming season will most likely be a firecracker and one of the most discussed shows of the year. —Elijah Gonzalez

The Chair Company

Network: HBO (Streaming on Max)
Premiere Date: TBD
Status: New Series

Okay, this is a bit of a reach, as we don’t have any idea if this show will actually arrive in ’25. The Chair Company will be at the top of our most wanted list until whenever it does come out for two reasons: Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin. The co-creators of I Think You Should Leave and Detroiters sold the Chair Company pilot to HBO last year—kind of late in the year, actually, in September—so it’s entirely possible it won’t hit the airwaves until 2026. We’re going to choose to believe that it’ll come out this year, though, if only because we need something to look forward to. (Uh, other than all those other shows we just wrote about.) Robinson and Kanin have given us the funniest TV shows of the last decade, and there’s no reason to expect anything less from The Chair Company—whose only description so far totally sounds like the set-up to a ITYSL sketch: after getting humiliated at work, a man starts to investigate a conspiracy.—Garrett Martin

Untitled Rachel Sennott Project

Network: HBO (Streaming on Max)
Premiere Date: TBD
Status: New Series

Rachel Sennott is everywhere right now, and soon, she’ll be leading her own HBO series. (Which is still untitled––keep it that way for the vibes?) Details are sparse, but here’s what we know: it follows a codependent friend group reuniting after time apart, as they navigate shifting dynamics brought on by ambition and new relationships. It’s the new Girls, with maybe a touch of Search Party––minus the murder, though who’s to say that won’t change? Sennott herself will write, star, and executive produce alongside director Lorene Scafaria (Succession) and Barry alumni Emma Barrie and Aida Rodgers. The cast includes Odessa A’zion (Ghosts), Jordan Firstman (English Teacher), Miles Robbins (Blockers), True Whitaker (Godfather of Harlem), Quenlin Blackwell, and––most exciting to me––Leighton Meester, returning to comedy after the cancellations of Single Parents and How I Met Your Father. (Give Leighton Meester her own sitcom, you cowards!) Sennott is known for Bodies Bodies Bodies, The Idol, Shiva Baby, and Bottoms, which she also co-wrote. Untitled Rachel Sennott Project will premiere on HBO in 2025.—Angelina Mazza