The NBA era on NBC is officially starting this fall, and we are getting a taste of what the network schedule will look like with professional basketball taking over its primetime. I say “a taste” because NBC today is only announcing its fall schedule for the first six weeks of the season, through October, with some guidance on its November schedule plans.
The October schedule, features less than a third (31.8%) scripted programming — which could be the lowest ever for NBC — and one new series, the unscripted On Brand with Jimmy Fallon. Or two, actually.
“NBA is a huge priority for us, that is our biggest new show in the fall,” Jeff Bader, President, Program Planning Strategy, NBCUniversal Entertainment, said during a pre-upfront press call Saturday.
Not surprisingly, the entire NBC schedule is tailored around it, and there was a lot of tailoring to be done.
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“There’s a three-part rollout to the fall schedule, given the NBA comes on in the middle of October,” Steven Kern, SVP, Program Planning & Scheduling, NBCUniversal Entertainment, said on the same call.
Here are the versions of the NBC schedule for the first two parts of the rollout in September and October, followed by analysis and information about Part 3 as well as details about the three (for now) official new 2025-26 series, On Brand, comedy The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, starring Tracy Morgan and executive produced by Tina Fey, and prehistoric nature docuseries Surviving Earth, which follows in the footsteps of this season’s The Americas.
NBC FALL 2025 SCHEDULE (SEPT./OCT.)
(New programs in UPPER CASE; all times ET/PT)
MONDAY
8-10 PM — The Voice
10-11 PM — Brilliant Minds
TUESDAY (SEPTEMBER)
8-10 PM – The Voice
10-11 PM– ON BRAND WITH JIMMY FALLON
TUESDAY (OCTOBER)
8-11 PM – NBA
WEDNESDAY
8-9 PM — Chicago Med
9-10 PM — Chicago Fire
10-11 PM — Chicago P.D.
THURSDAY
8-9 PM — Law & Order
9-10 PM — Law & Order: SVU
10-11 PM — The Hunting Party
FRIDAY
8-9 PM — ON BRAND WITH JIMMY FALLON
9-11 PM — Dateline NBC
SATURDAY
7-7:30 PM ET— Big Ten Pregame / Notre Dame Pregame (also live on Peacock)
7:30-11 PM ET— Big Ten Saturday Night / Notre Dame Football (also live on Peacock)
SUNDAY
7-8:20 PM ET— Football Night in America (also live on Peacock)
8:20-11 PM ET— NBC Sunday Night Football (also live on Peacock)
To periphrase Benjamin Franklin, at NBC, nothing is certain except Dick Wolf shows. As the network’s schedule is being overhauled to accomodate basketball programming under NBCUniversal’s $2.5 billion a year deal with the NBA — on Tuesday in the fall and Tuesday and Sunday in midseason — there are only seven scripted series on NBC’s September/October 2025 schedule.
Five of them, the Chicago trio, Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU, come from Wolf Entertainment. What’s more, they remain anchored in place, with no scheduling changes for any of them: One Chicago on Wednesday and a Law & Order 8 PM – 10 PM block on Thursday.
But standing in NBA’s path is the Tuesday edition of NBC’s flagship reality series The Voice (and the network’s Tuesday comedy block — more on that in a bit). As a result, the singing competition will start with its regular Monday-Tuesday air pattern in September before retreating to one show a week on Monday at the kickoff of the NBA season in October.
That is not all the shrinkage The Voice will undergo next fall. Come November, the reality series’ two-hour Monday edition will be squeezed to one hour (9PM-10PM) to make room for NBC’s displaced Tuesday comedy block. The hourlong block once again will be anchored by sophomore St. Denis Medical at 8 PM. In November, NBC also will restore the 8PM-9PM Friday comedy block with fellow sophomore Happy’s Place back as its 8 PM tentpole.
The 8:30 PM slots on both nights are currently vacant. Contenders to fill them include newly picked comedy series The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, starring Tracy Morgan and Daniel Radcliffe, as well as NBC’s two comedy pilots, which have not been filmed yet, Stumble from Jeff and Liz Astrof and an untitled community center project from Sierra Teller Ornelas. A decision is not expected before the network sees the pilots in June, Kern said.
Besides the Wolf series, the other dramas on the fall schedule are sophomores The Hunting Party and Brilliant Minds. Since they shared the same post-Voice Monday 10 PM slot in their freshman seasons — one in the fall, one in midseason — one had to move. The Hunting Party will relocate to Thursdays at 10 PM, succeeding the just-canceled Found.
The October schedule features three nights of sports (basketball and football) and two nights with at least two hours on unscripted/newsmagazine programming. That latter includes On Brand with Jimmy Fallon, a brand integration by the way of a reality competition show, which launches on Tuesday and then airs on Friday until the comedy block returns in November.
NBC in transition
This is a transitional year for NBC as the network embarks on 11 years of primetime NBA coverage and on its first upfront under new leadership as Pearlena Igbokwe at the end of January became Chairman, Television Studios, NBC Entertainment & Peacock Scripted, adding the broadcast network to her purview.
Because of the timing of her arrival late in the development cycle, pilot orders were delayed and the fall schedule is still a work-in-progress with holes in it. And in large part because of NBA’s arrival, NBC just canceled five scripted series, Found, The Irrational, Suits LA, Night Court and Lopez vs Lopez, without plans to pick up a single new drama series for 2025-26.
“We had a lot of shows that we had to pass on in order to put our schedule together,” Bader said. “We are losing seven hours of our prime time schedule over the course of the season to the NBA.”
While NBC’s scripted roster went down by four series year-to-year as of now, Bader was realistic about linear TV’s priorities when asked whether things are only going to get worse in terms of how many scripted shows we’re going to see in prime time.
“I don’t think it’s that much less than we used to have to be honest with you. I would not give up any of the things that we have. I wouldn’t give up Sunday Night Football to have more scripted hours. The NBA. it’s live sports programming, that’s what we need for linear. It’s a very, very different world,” he said. “Would I love to have more real estate and be able to put on more shows and more new shows? Absolutely.”
NEW COMEDY SERIES
THE FALL AND RISE OF REGGIE DINKINS
A disgraced former football player is on a mission to rehabilitate his image.
The series stars Tracy Morgan, Daniel Radcliffe, Erika Alexander, Bobby Moynihan, Precious Way, Jalyn Hall.
Writers Robert Carlock and Sam Means executive produce with Tracy Morgan, Tina Fey, Eric Gurian and David Miner. Director Rhys Thomas also executive produces (pilot only).
The series is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, Little Stranger, Bevel Gears and 3 Arts.
NEW UNSCRIPTED SERIES
ON BRAND WITH JIMMY FALLON
An innovative unscripted series that follows what happens when Jimmy Fallon starts a premier marketing agency and fills it with the most creative, clever and competitive go-getters he can find.
Fallon recruited Bozoma Saint John as the On Brand Agency’s Chief Marketing Officer, where she will mentor the creatives and evaluate their work.
In each episode, the On Brand Agency creatives will work with a major brand in need of a big idea for a massive, high-priority campaign – from creating earworm jingles and unbelievable activations to producing the most quotable commercials and must-have merchandise. They will have unprecedented access to the client’s businesses before pitching their vision to a brand representative, along with Saint John and Fallon, with only the best ideas moving on to proof of concept and the opportunity to see their campaign brought to life on the national stage after each episode.
The “On Brand” format will be licensed globally by NBCUniversal Formats, a division of Universal Studio Group.
“On Brand with Jimmy Fallon” is produced by B17 Entertainment and Universal Television Alternative Studio, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Electric Hot Dog. Executive producers are Jimmy Fallon, Brien Meagher, Rhett Bachner, Pip Wells and Kelly Powers. CAA’s Media & Entertainment Partnerships division serves as a collaborative business partner with NBCUniversal to bring leading brands to the show.
SURVIVING EARTH
NBC is going way back in time to see how life not only survived cataclysmic events but thrived in the unscripted special event series order “Surviving Earth.”
A co-production between Universal Television Alternative Studio, a division of Universal Studio Group, and UK indie Loud Minds, the eight-episode “Surviving Earth” will take an incredible journey into prehistory to learn the lessons from past mass extinctions.
Adopting cutting-edge digital technology, each episode transports the viewer back to meet the bizarre and amazing creatures and breathtaking landscapes of a vibrant lost world. Audiences will witness how life finds a way to survive on a planet where meteors fall, super volcanoes erupt, seas boil and the land moves. From the creators of “Walking with Dinosaurs” and “Primeval,” these are the stories of the survivors, fighters and lucky ones that shaped the world we live in.
