20 Best TV Shows of 2026 (So Far)
5. Rooster
Trust Steve Carell's long-awaited return to the small screen to be in one of the warmest sitcoms of the year.
In Rooster, one of many Bill Lawrence shows to air in the first half of 2026, Carell plays a dysfunctional author who takes a job at a local college in New England, hoping to reconnect with his daughter and integrate himself into her tumultuous personal life.
Like all Lawrence productions, Rooster is wise and slightly sad, wistful and full of honest belly laughs, and this particular effort is made great by the work of its cast. Carell is having a blast as a man a tad crushed by middle age, whilst Danielle Deadwyler, Charly Clive, and John C. McGinley deliver the goods as his various friends, family, and co-workers.
You get the sense that this little dramedy is just getting started, and given the ground it still has to cover regarding family strife, teaching-gone-wrong, and midlife crises, it seems destined to become something really special.