3 New Broadcast TV Shows You Need to Watch

The 2025 broadcast TV year is coming in strong with three new reality/documentary series that are unlike anything viewers have seen before. Scamanda, Extracted, and The Americas couldn’t be more different in subject or format, but they all are bringing something new to the table with their stories set out in the real world.

Here’s why you should tune into each of these new titles.

Extracted

Fox

Extracted, Fox’s newest survival series, is going to take full advantage of players’ emotions — their fears, pain, and misery — when 12 civilians are dropped into the unforgiving Canadian wilderness.

There, they must survive perilous terrain and predators who roam the land. And it’s not just the players being tortured for content: Their families will be watching every move from a secluded headquarters via a 24/7 live feed. Why? They’re given the ultimate power to decide if their loved one has what it takes to endure or if they need to press the “Extract” button to save them.

“We set out to make a show about families, their dynamics, and the responsibility we all feel when loved ones face real danger,” executive producer Brien Meagher says. “We looked for families that had the aspirations, and even some of the baggage we can all relate to, but who were willing to reach outside of their comfort zone to hopefully win the ultimate challenge.” If they do, they’ll take home $250,000. — Barb Oates

Extracted, Series Premiere Monday, February 10, 8/7c, Fox

The Americas

Danny Green / BBC Studios

“Nobody’s ever done a [nature] series about the whole of America,” says producer Mike Gunton (Planet Earth II and III) of this 10-part NBCUniversal and BBC Studios Natural History Unit series, narrated by Tom Hanks. “It’s this extraordinary supercontinent with an [8,700-mile] continuum, starting way up at the Arctic Circle, running through the tropics and ending with its toe almost in Antarctica.”

Hanks is “the ultimate storyteller,” says Gunton, for the heartwarming and dramatic stories of wildlife captured in diverse environments. Among them: a raccoon family in New York City, sand tiger sharks socializing off North Carolina’s coast, and pigmy owls outsmarting snakes in the Sonoran Desert. — Ileane Rudolph

The Americas, Series Premiere Sunday, February 23, 7/6c, NBC

Scamanda

ABC

Whet your true crime appetite with this docuseries about Amanda Riley, a San Jose wife and mother with an idyllic life who announced in 2012 that she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She began sharing her cancer journey online, from remissions to relapses, and received over $100,000 in financial support from sympathetic readers. However, it was all an elaborate lie, and Riley was eventually sentenced to five years in prison.

“Amanda was a beautiful, young, loving mother and member of the church, but all of that was an illusion that may have gotten the best of her,” says executive producer Elizabeth Waller. “This is a story that keeps everyone guessing.” — Jim Halterman

Scamanda, Series Premiere Thursday, January 30, 9/8c, ABC