
(Photo by FX)
Fall 2019 TV Survey: 40 Most Anticipated Returning Shows
For Rotten Tomatoes’ annual Fall TV Survey, we asked thousands of our users what they’re most looking forward to in the coming TV season and to reflect on the best shows from seasons past.
We first asked TV fans which returning fall TV shows they were most looking forward to, allowing them more than one vote to spread the love around.
American Horror Story took the top spot with 25% of the vote. No. 2, the second season of Mindhunter, which has already launched on Netflix, got 24.31% of the vote, besting The Good Place (23.7%) by a hair.
Read on to find out all of Rotten Tomatoes users’ most anticipated returning series.
Disagree with the survey results? Tell us in the comments who you think should have made the list or have been ranked higher.
Adjusted Score: -0.269%
Synopsis: Singers square off for a coveted recording contract in this reality talent contest from the producers of "Big Brother" and...
[More]
Adjusted Score: -0.09%
Synopsis: Season 5 of the drama series opens with the aftermath of the car accident that almost killed Manning (Torrey DeVitto)...
[More]
Adjusted Score: -0.09%
Synopsis: Season 6 of the comedy series opens with Jessica (Constance Wu) and Honey (Chelsey Crisp) arguing about their involvement in...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 90.768%
Critics Consensus: Penn Badgley's perversely endearing serial stalker keeps looking for love in all the wrong places during a second season that maintains the subversive tension while adding some welcome variations on the series' formula.
Synopsis: The dark drama returns for its second season, with Joe now laying low and hiding from his ex in LA....
[More]
Adjusted Score: -0.179%
Synopsis: The firefighters and paramedics of Firehouse 51 risk their lives to save and protect their city. As these heroes forge...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 89.794%
Critics Consensus: By focusing on its strong ensemble and the character moments fans have come to love, Runaways ends its three season run on an exciting -- and surprisingly introspective -- high note.
Synopsis: In an action-packed Season 3, the Runaways frantically search for their captured friends Chase, Gert, and Karolina. The kids go...
[More]
Adjusted Score: -0.09%
Synopsis: Drama based on characters from the Archie comic-books series is set in Riverdale, where aspiring musician Archie deals with life,...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 54.002%
Synopsis: After a sudden turn of events, the Conners are forced to face the daily struggles of life in Lanford in...
[More]
Adjusted Score: -0.09%
Synopsis: A crime drama that chronicles the exploits of the New York office of the FBI....
[More]
Adjusted Score: 101.96%
Critics Consensus: Smart and thrilling as ever, The Expanse's fourth season doesn't miss a beat, successfully navigating network changes without losing any of its rich character work or narrative complexities.
Synopsis: Season 4 of The Expanse, its first as a global Amazon Original, begins a new chapter for the series, with...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 62.793%
Synopsis: In Season 16 of the medical drama, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) faces the possibility of losing her medical license after admitting...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 8.97%
Synopsis: Frank's exploits lead him to an old friend, Debbie rules over the Gallagher household with an iron fist, Lip navigates...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 35.882%
Synopsis: A law professor and a group of her best students are drawn into a real-life murder conspiracy....
[More]
Adjusted Score: -0.09%
Synopsis: Season 6 of the comedy series sees a lot of changes in the family's dynamics. Jack (Miles Brown) and Diane...
[More]
Adjusted Score: -0.359%
Synopsis: A singing competition in which artists perform in disguise....
[More]
Adjusted Score: 92.166%
Critics Consensus: The Man in the High Castle finds something close to closure, wrapping up major threads to bring everything full circle in sufficiently dramatic fashion.
Synopsis: Juliana Crain is on a mission to take down Reichsmarschall Smith, as the Nazis use the Die Nebenwelt Portal to...
[More]
Adjusted Score: -0.269%
Synopsis: The new medical director breaks the rules to heal the system at America's oldest public hospital. Dr. Max Goodwin sets...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 80.733%
Synopsis: Twenty-six years ago, Sam and Dean Winchester lost their mother to a mysterious and demonic supernatural force. Subsequently, their father...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 83.575%
Critics Consensus: As visually spectacular as ever, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel's witty banter flies with comedic fury -- but shallow social commentary and wandering storylines highlight the show's increasingly superficial tendencies.
Synopsis: Midge and Susie discover that life on tour with Shy is glamorous but humbling, and they learn a lesson about...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 26.911%
Synopsis: An animated adult series about foul-mouthed primary school children living in a Colorado town. Rude, crude and seriously funny, it...
[More]
Adjusted Score: -0.359%
Synopsis: Matt Groening's subversive, animated satire about Springfield's hapless first family became a cult favourite when it premiered on Fox in...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 53.822%
Synopsis: From creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk (the "American Horror Story" franchise, "Nip/Tuck"), new procedural drama 9-1-1 explores the high-pressure...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 94.615%
Critics Consensus: Though the strangeness of reality threatens to one-up it, Silicon Valley's final season is funny, fearless, and still playing by its own rules to the very end.
Synopsis: A series on the evolution of the Northern California high-tech mecca....
[More]
Adjusted Score: -0.269%
Synopsis: Season 7 of the crime drama opens with Red (James Spader) being kidnapped by Katarina Rostova (Laila Robins); Liz (Megan...
[More]
Adjusted Score: -0.179%
Synopsis: The trials and tribulations of a 40-year-old LAPD rookie....
[More]
Adjusted Score: 32.576%
Synopsis: Sexual assaults, domestic disputes and kidnappings are often the primary focus of this crime show, which follows New York City...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 83.076%
Critics Consensus: Always Sunny's provocative humor has lost some bite, but the patrons of Paddy's Pub ought to be pleased by the Gang's inability to cope with modernity -- and each other.
Synopsis: Season 14 of the seriously dark comedy about four dissolute friends who run a struggling pub in Philadelphia....
[More]
Adjusted Score: -0.09%
Synopsis: A talented young surgeon with savant syndrome ruffles feathers while saving lives at a prestigious hospital's pediatric surgical unit....
[More]
Adjusted Score: 42.609%
Critics Consensus: Oliver Queen's final adventure hits emotional peaks while spearheading the game-changing "Crisis on Infinite Earths," giving the Emerald Archer a rousing sendoff.
Synopsis: The eighth season of the superhero show opens with Oliver (Stephen Amell) traveling to Earth-2 with his friend Diggle (David...
[More]
Adjusted Score: -0.179%
Synopsis: Season 17 of the drama series follows directly from the events of the final episode of the previous season. Ziva...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 96.05%
Critics Consensus: Rick and Morty's fourth season is both an exciting progression and a delightful return to form that proves more than worth the two-year wait.
Synopsis: Mad scientist Rick Sanchez moves in with his daughter's family after disappearing for 20 years and involves them in his...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 68.422%
Critics Consensus: Jack Ryan's second season is both more refined and more predictable, doubling down on its espionage set-pieces while toning down its titular character's moral complexities to create a more straight-forward spy show.
Synopsis: After tracking a potentially suspicious shipment of illegal arms in the Venezuelan jungle, CIA Officer Jack Ryan heads to South...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 98.06%
Critics Consensus: Olivia Colman shines, but as The Crown marches on in reliably luxurious fashion through time it finds space for the characters around her, providing ample opportunity for the appealing ensemble to gleam, too.
Synopsis: A decades-spanning historical drama chronicles the tale of Queen Elizabeth II and how she and her prime ministers impacted postwar...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 38.124%
Synopsis: Scientist Barry Allen acquires super speed through a freak accident and becomes known as the Fastest Man Alive in this...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 37.227%
Critics Consensus: A few changes in front of and behind the camera allow TWD create space for compelling new stories and some seriously scary new adversaries.
Synopsis: The Walking Dead is a story that started 10 years ago with one man trying to find his family. That...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 79.256%
Critics Consensus: A heartfelt goodbye that leaves the door open, Modern Family's final season is a touching tribute to the show and a fitting enough farewell to one of TVs favorite families.
Synopsis: At the start of Season 11, Alex (Ariel Winter) is in Antarctica for his research, Haley (Sarah Hyland) and Dylan...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 80.733%
Critics Consensus: This Is Us reaffirms that it is more than just a mystery box in its fourth season, pressing on with some of its most central questions answered -- but its emotional power intact.
Synopsis: The Pearson family's generational story unfolds in this emotional drama. In moments of joy and heartbreak, revelations emerge from parents...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 103.575%
Critics Consensus: A wild philosophical ride to the very end, The Good Place brings it home with a forking good final season.
Synopsis: Follows Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell, "House of Lies," "Veronica Mars"), an ordinary woman who enters the afterlife, and thanks to...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 104.1%
Critics Consensus: Mindhunter expands its narrative horizons without losing sight of the details that made its first season so rich, crafting a chilling second season that is as unsettling as it is utterly absorbing.
Synopsis: The Behavioral Science Unit's killer instincts move from theory into action when the FBI joins in a high-profile hunt for...
[More]
Adjusted Score: 62.434%
Critics Consensus: A near-perfect blend of slasher tropes and American Horror Story's trademark twists, 1984 is a bloody good time.
Synopsis: In the summer of 1984, five friends escape Los Angeles to work as counselors at Camp Redwood; as they adjust...
[More]
*No. 22 reflects write-in votes; a few of the top titles included The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Mr. Robot, Chicago P.D., A Million Little Things, and Blue Bloods. (Some titles confirmed return dates after our survey was conducted; others, like popular write-in Star Trek: Discovery, have yet to announce.)
Like this? Subscribe to our newsletter and get more features, news, and guides in your inbox every week.