2015-2016 Fall Preview Specials [Updated]

The official start of the 2015-2016 television season is still over a month away (it kicks off on Monday, September 21st) but it is never too early to start talking about network fall preview specials. As was the case last year, it looks like this year only CBS plans to air its 2015 special nationally while ABC and NBC will be offering affiliate specials. PBS also has a special this year previewing some of its fall programming.

I’ve yet to come across any information about a 2015 fall preview specials for The CW.

As always, check your local listings.

ABC: “The ABC Primetime Preview”

Ken Jeong, star of the new ABC sitcom Dr. Ken, will host this half-hour affiliate special. From the listings I’ve looked at, the special will start airing the weekend of August 22nd/23rd. Update: You can watch “The ABC Primetime Preview” at ABC’s website or at Hulu. Update 2: ABC will air the special nationally on Friday, September 18th from 8:30-9PM.

CBS: “CBS Fall Preview Show”

CBS will air its half-hour special nationally on Monday, September 7th at 8:30PM. Hosted by Jane Lynch (who stars in the network’s new sitcom Angel from Hell), the special will also be made available via a number of online and on demand platforms through September 30th. Here‘s the full press release. Update: The special can be viewed online.

NBC: “2015 NBC Primetime Preview Show”

The cast of NBC’s sitcom Undateable will host this half-hour affiliate special. It will start airing NBC stations on Saturday, August 22nd as well as on select NBCUniversal cable channels. It will also be available online and on demand. NBC plans to keep the special available through October 4th. More information can be found here. Update: NBC also released a 60-minute version of this special, with the same previews but longer segments with the cast of Undateable.

FOX: Special Previews

FOX did not air a traditional fall preview special this year. Instead, it broadcast five-minute previews of its five new fall shows on two occasions. The first set of previews aired nationally on Saturday, August 15th, 2015 from 11:30PM-12AM ET. The second set aired nationally on Saturday, September 5th, 2015 from 11:30PM-12AM ET. Each preview consisted of behind-the-scenes interviews followed by a lengthy promotional trailer.

PBS: “PBS Previews — Best of the Fall”

I believe this half-hour special aired nationally on PBS on Tuesday, August 11th at 9:30PM. However, PBS stations are very localized so it may not have been seen throughout the country. Check your local listings because it looks like the special is airing multiple times on some stations throughout August and into September.

If you have any information about The CW airing a fall preview special this year, hit the comments.


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9 Replies to “2015-2016 Fall Preview Specials [Updated]”

  1. NBC appeared to air “NBC Showcase” instead of the listed fall preview. (Early Saturday morning on the two networks I get in.) It had the shows with brief introductions by the various stars of the show. It was basically “Hi I’m … and this is our show.” Except of course for the Neil Patrick Harris bit, but that’s to be expected.

    It will be interesting to see if the listed special is aired. It could be that NBC decided to either cancel Undateable or to move it to mid-season or summer. (Or they just didn’t want to promote a show they’re buring on Friday night. Or the case refused to do the promo because of how the show was being treated.) That would make the preview unairable (yes, that’s actually a word), particularly in the former case, and it forced them at the last minute to come up with a replacement. The clips would be the same, but the hosting segments would need to be replaced.

    Thanks for the info on CBS and PBS. The listings I search with only shows 1 week. I wouldn’t have thought to look for a PBS one, I usually ignore it. The PBS one airs on one station at 1:30am tomorrow and another at 10:30 pm Friday this week.

    From what I can tell, neither FOX nor The CW produced a special for last year although they both did for 2013. As such they may not have on this year. Usually, most of the specials air by the second week in September with most popping up the first week. NBC has aired it’s specials a few times during the summer in the past.

    1. Interesting. I see the “2015 NBC Primetime Preview Show” airing in early September on several NBCUniversal cable channels (Bravo, Oxygen, Universal HD). We will have to wait and see what actually airs. The Universal HD listing indicates the special is an hour long while the Bravo and Oxygen listings both have it running 30 minutes.

    2. I haven’t watched it yet but I recorded the “2015 NBC Primetime Preview Show” that aired on Universal HD yesterday. It does feature the cast of Undateable and it is an hour long. So there must be two versions of the special.

      1. Sometimes the schedule may give it an hour when it’s actually only half-an-hour long.

      2. I suspect there’s 2 versions because some stations don’t want to dedicate a full hour to the preview. Most previews are only half-an-hour long. A full hour one is unusual.

  2. There’s a bunch of preview specials on this weekend. FOX has something on Saturday night around 11:30pm. It may just be a bunch of previews one after another like the way NBC initially did it.

    1. Apparently FOX did this twice, first on Saturday, August 15th and again on Saturday, September 5th. A total of five 5-minute previews for its new fall shows were aired from 11:30PM-12AM ET as part of its Saturday Animation Domination High-Def block. My local FOX affiliate aired the previews from 12-12:30AM ET.

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