TV's Number 1 Comedy's Proper 2026 Return Is Officially Not Happening (With A Caveat )

Published Oct 6, 2026, 10:01 AM EDT

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.

While the top-rated CBS comedy series of 2026 isn’t coming back to screens regularly before the end of the year, the iconic sitcom will still be back for a few standalone outings instead. If the era of streaming services has done one thing to alter television as a medium, it is introducing longer breaks between seasons of TV. Network TV schedules used to be highly regimented, even though cable TV sometimes took long breaks between shorter seasons with fewer episodes.

However, streaming services threw out this proverbial rulebook entirely, with shows like Netflix’s Stranger Things and Wednesday regularly taking three-year breaks between seasons. This would have been unthinkable in the days of shows like the iconic sitcom Cheers, which reliably produced over 20 episodes per nine-month season for more than a decade. On the other hand, traditional network sitcoms like The Simpsons have begun releasing streaming specials during summer, meaning some shows have no hiatus at all anymore.

Within this context, perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the biggest comedy series of the 2025-2026 TV season, CBS’s sitcom Ghosts, won’t return to regularly scheduled episodes until 2027. According to Variety, Ghosts comfortably outdid its competitors like Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage to become the year’s biggest sitcom. With 10.5 million viewers, the series was narrowly outdone by ABC’s police procedural The Rookie.

Ghosts Is Not Returning In Its Usual Schedule This Fall

Although shows like Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone spinoff Marshals and CBS’s Tracker also beat Ghosts, and were among the few titles that could compete with the most-watched shows on streaming services like Netflix and Prime Video, Ghosts still fared incredibly well. For context, the show was ranked as Variety’s 17th most-watched title of the season, compared to Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage tying for 20th place and the next network sitcom, the Scrubs revival, not showing up until number 40.

Considering how successful the Scrubs revival was thought to be, this just goes to show what a massive hit Ghosts is for CBS. As such, it might come as a surprise that viewers won’t see season 6 of the series until 2027, as the sitcom’s return is delayed. While the Scrubs revival has already returned to screens, Ghosts has been replaced by the supernatural sitcom Eternally Yours in its usual timeslot.

Why Ghosts Is Being Delayed To 2027

Fortunately, fans need not fret about the fate of their favorite series. Not only is Ghosts not in danger of being canceled, but the show’s success is, in fact, part of the reason for season 6’s delay. Eternally Yours comes from Ghosts show runners Joe Port and Joe Wiseman, and premiering this new, similar sitcom in the Ghosts time slot is likely designed to maximize the new show’s viewer share.

Ghosts itself was based on the British sitcom of the same name that began in 2019, meaning the show’s creators are no strangers to the idea of leveraging one hit show’s popularity to promote another. Since British shows have far shorter seasons, the BBC’s original Ghosts wrapped up in 2024 after five seasons and only 34 episodes in total. In contrast, CBS’s Ghosts, like the ABC hit Abbott Elementary, will hit its 100th episode milestone in season 6.

With syndication essentially guaranteed by this milestone and its massive existing audience, Ghosts is a sure-fire success, so Port and Wiseman don’t need to worry about its future. In contrast, while Eternally Yours stars The Mindy Project’s Ed Weeks and Upload’s Allegra Edwards, the Ghosts replacement is unlikely to get by on star power alone. Thus, the new show could do with the ratings boost provided by its borrowed time slot.

Eternally Yours and Ghosts may share show runners and paranormal plot elements, but there are also some pivotal differences between the two shows. With a big ensemble cast that includes not just Sam and Jay, but also Thor, Sass, Isaac, Hetty, Alberta, Flower, Pete, and Trevor, Ghosts is a hangout sitcom in the vein of Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Seinfeld, or The Big Bang Theory and its sci-fi spinoff Stuart Fails to Save the Universe.

In contrast, Eternally Yours is a traditional family sitcom. The show focuses on Weeks’s Charles and Edwards’s Liz, a vampire couple whose romance has lost its spark after half a millennium of overly familiar companionship. The arrival of their daughter’s human boyfriend upends the couple’s staid existence, leading them to wonder whether eternity together is a blessing or a curse. With supporting roles for Suburgatory’s Parker Young and Gilmore Girls’s Rose Abdoo, Eternally Yours could comfortably match Ghosts in terms of the show’s sense of humor.

Ghosts Will Still Release New Episodes In 2026

Image via MovieStillsDB

However, many viewers might prefer the hangout comedy of Ghosts to the family sitcom setup of its replacement, just like many fans of The Big Bang Theory were struck by just how different its family sitcom prequel Young Sheldon felt in terms of tone and style. For those viewers who can’t wait for Ghosts season 6’s return, there is some good news on the horizon.

While Ghosts won’t go back to regularly releasing new episodes until 2027, the show will air a Halloween special in late October and a Die Hard-inspired Christmas special in December. The Ghosts season 6 Halloween special will arrive on October 29. Titled “The Mirror,” the special is set to introduce Hetty’s sister. Meanwhile, Ghosts season 6’s Christmas special will air on December 10.

Since Ghosts has some classic Christmas and Halloween specials to date, this is a promising substitute while viewers wait for new episodes in 2027. In recent years, Family Guy has begun to embrace a similar release strategy, with new Hulu exclusive Christmas and Halloween specials accompanying each season of the show. Thus, viewers need not worry about missing out on Ghosts for too long.

That said, the show’s later arrival does mean that the break between Ghosts season 5 and 6 marks the longest period that the sitcom has spent off the air in its five-year history. With any luck, Ghosts won’t go missing again after America’s favorite sitcom finally returns to CBS next year when Eternally Yours has established itself in the TV listings.

Source: Variety

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