Fans of NBC’s hit comedies will have to wait a bit longer to get more laughs this fall!
For all the talk about how sitcoms are dying out, NBC has had some success with them in the last few years. Three of the top ones have been Happy’s Place, St. Denis Medical, and The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, all of which earned renewals for the 2026-27 season.
Deadline has broken NBC’s new fall slate, and in a surprise, all three shows won’t premiere until late October or even early November. It’s a seemingly strange situation, as all three shows have their fanbases who may not be happy about waiting so long for new seasons.
First is Happy’s Place, as the series starring Reba McEntire and Belissa Escobedo as sisters running a bar will return for season 3 on Friday, October 23 at 8/7c. It will be followed by the new sitcom Newlyweds, which pairs real-life spouses Tim Daly and Tea Leoni as people who impulsively get married as they hit middle age.
Meanwhile, the hospital mockumentary St. Denis Medical airs season 3 on Monday, November 2, at 8/7c. It will be followed by the second-season premiere of The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, starring Tracy Morgan in the title role as a disgraced football player attempting a comeback, with Daniel Radcliffe as a filmmaker following him.
Waiting this long to premiere all three shows seems a strange move, given that most series premiere in September or early October. It’s stranger with comedies, yet there are some reasons for it. For one, a later premiere date allows all these shows to avoid the rush of primaries from CBS, NBC, and Fox so they can get more attention when they do air. There’s also how sitcoms are much faster to film and produce than dramas are, so NBC doesn’t need as much lead time for productions.
The later air times also give NBC ample time to advertise the shows during NFL games or other events. That’s a great way to get more eyes on the series, which can boost ratings. It helps that Dinkins and St. Denis have both earned critical acclaim to go with their audience approval, and promoting the critical raves can win over new viewers.
The scheduling works for the format of the shows. Happy’s Place is a traditional multi-camera studio sitcom, so it works alongside a fellow multi-camera comedy, Newlyweds. It also makes sense to have two shows featuring TV veterans airing back-to-back.
Likewise, both St. Denis and Dinkins are mockumentaries, so pairing them together is logical, as NBC does love to have comedy “blocs” of similar programming going back to the “Must See TV” days of the 1990s. NBC is no doubt hoping to capture most of that same magic.
So it’ll be a long wait for fans of NBC’s comedies to start laughing again, but hopefully it’ll be worth it for new ways to feel better in the fall.
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