The 5 Best New Fall 2018 Broadcast Shows If We Were Forced to Pick 5

The leaves are beginning to turn, the kids are back in school, and NBC has a mysterious new sci-fi series that has one big question and zero answers. Yep, it's fall, and the big TV broadcast networks (kids, ask your parents what those are) are readying their fall season lineups.

In addition to the returns of Romance Hospital and Lawyers! Lawyers! Lawyers!, there will be a ton of new shows begging for you to turn off Netflix for a few minutes and give them some love. And just like every passing year, they're getting worse and worse yet we still are curious if there's a gem in there somewhere. You don't have time to watch them all, so we watched them all for you, and picked out the five we think are most worth your time if someone was holding our families hostage in exchange for telling them the five new broadcast shows that were worth watching. Let's *gulp* do this!

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Manifest
NBC; Monday, Sept. 24 at 10/9c
Is the golden age of sci-fi mysteries on broadcast television back? No, but don't tell NBC that. Manifest's big hook is this: In 2013, a commercial airliner with 191 passengers on board goes missing and lands as usual... five years later! Time has not passed for those on board, which includes Ben (Josh Dallas) and his sister Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh), while everyone else moved on with their lives, even Ben's wife who figured he was dead and, well, no one wants to be alone. It's a series that bombards you with so many questions they can't possibly all be answered, but if you're a sucker for a big question with some potentially science-fiction or even religious answers, buckle up.

New Amsterdam
NBC; Tuesday, Sept. 25 at 10/9c
NBC hasn't had a great medical drama since The Night Shift Chicago Med Animal Practice ER, so hopes are lukewarm for this doc series starring Ryan Eggold as the new no-f***s-given director of one of the country's oldest public hospitals. Seriously, his character comes in on his first day and fires like half the staff because they love red tape. There's a medicare-for-all subtext here in New Amsterdamas Eggold's Dr. Max Goodwin seeks to help everyone he can even if it pisses off Big Insurance, but it's a notion that gives the show a lot of heart.

Single Parents
ABC; Wednesday, Sept. 26 at 9:30/8:30c
ABC is the clear home for family comedies, but where's the love for our lonely mom and dads doing it all themselves as single parents? Hey, that would be a good name and premise for a show, someone said, and voila, Single Parents. Taran Killam and Leighton Meester headline this comedy that might be the brightest spot of an otherwise bleak fall season for broadcast. The pilot is definitely the funniest of all the new comedies, and it really shows the struggle of the spouseless breeder, admittedly maybe sometimes too much. But parents of any family orientation will be able to relate: it doesn't sugarcoat the difficulties of raising children, sometimes painting parents as insane, overworked drones to keep themselves from driving off a cliff while singing "The Wheels on the Bus."

All American
The CW; Wednesday, Oct. 10 at 9/8c
The CW is largely dominated by superheroes and the supernatural but the network is returning to its more realistic roots with the upcoming teen drama All American. Based on the true story of Spencer Paysinger, the series follows a high school football player (Daniel Ezra) who leaves Crenshaw behind to play for the bougie Beverly Hills High. There are no powers, no monsters, no all-knowing telenovela narrator or Papa Poutine; All American is just a straight-up high school drama in the veins of The O.C. and Friday Night Lights -- which isn't to say it's boring. It's filled with its fair share of twists and an ensemble of thirst traps that CW fans have come to expect from the network's shows (hey, Taye Diggs).

The Rookie
ABC; Tuesday, Oct. 16 at 10/9c
The big headline here is The Rookie is Nathan Fillion's return to ABC since Castle. He plays a man who for some reason -- probably because it's a TV show -- decides to join the police force at the overripe age of 40-something. Hilarity and drama might ensue in this hour-long dramedy. But The Rookie also follows a handful of other recruits, each with their own interesting stories about how they fare in blue as they're paired with vets who give them a lot of guff. Fillion's the highlight but also keep an eye on Melissa O'Neil (Dark Matter) as another rookie; she's a star in Canada but is ready to be a big name in the States.

If you're looking for even more hand-picked recommendations, click over to our Watch This Now! page.

Sadie Gennis contributed to this article