Sep 12, 2016 5 min read

Dozens of new television series will be popping up over the next few months, but your DVR is full, you have yet to unwrap those DVDs on the coffee table and you’ve promised to binge out with Netflix this weekend. How to sample those new shows?

You’ll need a six-pack. And we’ve got one.

Here are six – just six – new network shows you might want to fit in to your schedule:

Designated Survivor (ABC) – A cabinet member (Kiefer Sutherland) becomes president after a deadly terrorist attack. In the trailers, Sutherland’s character is Mr. Everyman, setting him apart from the superheroes and doctors, lawyers and crime solvers that populate most other TV dramas. It also should benefit initially from mirroring issues discussed in the real presidential campaign.

Frequency (CW) – The most compelling of three time-travel series this fall, and also the most serious – and most engaging. Based on the Dennis Quaid movie of the same name, it’s about a daughter who communicates with her dead father via CB radio, causing some serious timeline issues. The father-daughter relationship brings some empathy to what otherwise could be a typical sci-fi series.

Kevin Can Wait (CBS) – It’s pretty much “King of Queens” in a different setting, but Tim Allen successfully morphed “Home Improvement” into “Last Man Standing,” as in these star-turn sitcoms, fans tune in for the actor, not the script. So get comfortable. This sitcom might be around a while.

Pitch (Fox) – Here’s the no-hitter on my list. Series centered around sports – especially baseball – have not traditionally made it to a second season, but “Pitch,” about the first woman in the Major Leagues, is receiving great reviews. So, even if it strikes out, it may well be worth watching while it lasts. Perhaps some MLB officials will take note.

Speechless (ABC) – The alphabet network has done well with diverse family sitcoms over the past few years, and a cushy timeslot between “The Goldbergs” and “Modern Family” should deliver a big initial audience. If there’s any hesitation in predicting success for this comedy about a family with a special needs child, it’s that, not too long ago, “The Michael J. Fox Show” was considered a shoo-in hit. Turns out too many people said they felt uncomfortable with jokes revolving around a person’s disabilities.

This Is Us (NBC) – It has the real-life feel of “Parenthood,” my sole appointment TV series of the past few years. The premise is rather simple: It’s about people who share a birthday, but their lives evidently intertwine over the course of several episodes. Previews make it clear you’ll be laughing through an ample supply of Kleenex, so be prepared. The show, by the way, is set in Pittsburgh, and the “Terrible Towel” makes a rather startling early appearance.

While you were away from your couch, nearly two dozen TV series met their demise. Oh, most will be back for a last hurrah (and a presumed bump in the ratings), but cast and crew have already received their pink slips.

“Rizzoli & Isles” bit the dust earlier this month, and the CW’s “Beauty and the Beast” airs its finale Thursday. Other funerals, er finales, are a bit further down the road. Most recently, NBC announced “Grimm” would be wrapping up its storylines with a truncated final season that begins in January. HBO’s “Game of Thrones” also is ending, but its final set of episodes won’t come along until 2018.

The CW’s axed “The Vampire Diaries” begins it fanged finale season in October, and Fox will finally let its “Bones” rest after this spring.

Also entering final seasons are “Pretty Little Liars” and “Switched at Birth” (Freeform), “Bates Motel” (A&E), “Devious Maids” (Lifetime), “Comedy Bang Bang” and the already-axed “Maron” (IFC), the already-wrapped “Jim Gaffigan Show” (TV Land), “Orphan Black” (BBC America), “Rectify” (Sundance), “Teen Wolf” (MTV) and “Feed the Beast” (already canned) and “Turn” (AMC). Late last week, FX axed “Tyrant” after three seasons.

A few premium channel series are also doomed, including “Black Sails” (Starz), “Episodes” (Showtime) and “Girls” (HBO).

At the other end of the spectrum, Disney renewed “MECH-X$” for a second season before its first-season premiere.

Here’s the latest revision in the networks’ fall season, which officially began last Thursday on NBC with the premiere of Sunday Night Football,” which subsequently made its regular debut Sunday night.

If you think NBC was intentionally reminding viewers that “Thursday Night Football” eventually moves from CBS to NBC, you wouldn’t be wrong. For the record, CBS’s “Thursday Night Football” begins Thursday.

As has been tradition for the past several years, “Dancing with the Stars” is the first regular series to air new programming (today at 8 p.m.). The only other premiere this week is “Blindspot,” Wednesday at 10 p.m.