What’s on ABC tonight? Here is the full ABC schedule for Tuesday, October 27, 2026, with times in Eastern Time (ET).

ABC’s Tuesday is one big swing at 8pm ET, then a drama to close

See also: What's on tonight across all channels | Wednesday's TV guide

ABC has handed its whole evening to Dancing with the Stars, and it is the right call. The ballroom competition gets two full hours from 8pm ET, the only two-hour block anywhere on ABC’s primetime, and it is the one night of the week where the network has a clear argument for why you should be in front of it rather than somewhere else.

The episode is titled Horror Movie Night, the eighth of season 35. A themed week gives a competition show something to hang its costumes, music and production design on, and the title promises a lot more spectacle than a regular Tuesday. We can’t tell you what any couple is dancing, but the theme alone makes this a better pick than most weeks. This is a show with 459 episodes behind it and a format adapted from Strictly Come Dancing, which means the machinery runs smoothly even when the content is routine. It is a competition, so it plays best live, with the phone down.

The competition around it is real. CBS has NCIS at 8pm ET/PT (7pm Central), Fox has the World Series, and Bravo has The Real Housewives of New York City. Anyone who wants baseball will not be tempted by a dance floor, but for everyone else the choice is between ABC’s long-running spectacle and CBS’s long-running procedural. ABC wins on event value. CBS wins on brevity, because you get an hour, not two.

Then comes the quieter half of the night. RJ Decker takes the 10pm ET slot, an hour long, and it has the look of a show trying to find an audience: two seasons and ten episodes so far, with Scott Speedman, Jaina Lee Ortiz, Kevin Rankin and Adelaide Clemens in the cast, and a source in Double Whammy. It airs weekly, since it turns up on Tuesday the 20th and again tonight. That is a respectable pairing with a dance show, because the people who stay up past ten are the ones who like a story after a spectacle. It faces NCIS: Origins on CBS at the same hour, so the viewers who want a procedural are already spoken for. Three stars: worth sampling, not worth rearranging a night around.

At 11:35pm ET the network goes to Jimmy Kimmel Live!, running 62 minutes for episode 27 of its 25th season. It is a talk show and tonight is no different from the rest of the week: a fixture that turns up on every weeknight, which tells you everything about its role. Nightline follows at 12:52am ET for anyone who wants a late news fix.

The daytime stack is the standard one. Good Morning America takes two hours from 7am ET. The View is on at 11am ET, GMA3: What You Need to Know at 1pm ET and General Hospital at 2pm ET. World News Tonight with David Muir anchors the early evening at 6:30pm ET, after which local programming takes over at 7pm ET before the main event.

The short version: stay for Dancing with the Stars, treat RJ Decker as optional, and set the recorder for Kimmel if you have a late start tomorrow.


Also on TV tonight at 8pm ET

  • NBC: NBA Basketball
  • CBS: NCIS
  • FOX: 2026 World Series
  • PBS: Finding Your Roots
  • The CW: WWE NXT
  • ION: Chicago Fire
  • TCM: Arsenic and Old Lace
  • AMC: A Nightmare on Elm Street (from 7pm ET)
  • FX: Independence Day (from 6pm ET)
  • Freeform: Addams Family Values (from 7pm ET)

Every channel tonight, side by side · Movies on TV this week · Tomorrow’s TV


Frequently asked questions

What’s on ABC tonight?

On Tuesday, October 27, 2026, ABC shows Dancing with the Stars at 8pm ET and RJ Decker at 10pm ET.

Is there a movie on ABC tonight?

No. ABC has no movies in its evening schedule on Tuesday, October 27, 2026.

What’s on ABC late tonight?

After 11pm ET, ABC has Local Programs at 11pm ET and Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm ET.

What time does ABC’s evening start?

The evening schedule starts with Local Programs at 6pm ET.

A news network that turns into a different channel at 8pm

ABC spends its days on news and talk and its evenings on almost everything else. Across the two weeks we tracked, news made up close to half of all its airtime, almost all of it before 8pm. That split is the most useful thing to know about the channel: a morning-to-evening run of live studio programming, then a primetime lineup that changes completely from one night of the week to the next.

It is also a heavily scheduled channel. Around 85% of its airtime goes to titles that come back on three or more days, and most of its weekday shows sit in exactly the same slot every day. If you know what ABC does on a Tuesday, you know what it will do on the next one.

What a day on ABC looks like

The weekday spine starts overnight. ABC News Nightline runs at 12:37am, World News Now fills the hours after 2am, and Good Morning America First Look leads into Good Morning America at 7am. The View takes 11am, GMA3: What You Need to Know follows at 1pm, and General Hospital, the network’s daytime soap, holds 2pm. Every one of those ran in the same slot on every weekday we measured.

The hours in between are handed to local stations, which is why “Local Programs” is the most common entry on the schedule. The network comes back at 6:30pm with its evening newscast anchored by David Muir, and the 7pm hour belongs to your local station again.

Primetime runs 8pm to 11pm ET and has a fixed identity for each night:

  • Monday: football. Monday Night Football Kickoff at 8pm, the game at 8:15pm.
  • Tuesday: Dancing with the Stars from 8pm, then RJ Decker at 10pm.
  • Wednesday: comedy at 8pm and 8:30pm (Scrubs, then Abbott Elementary), then unscripted shows such as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Shark Tank.
  • Thursday: three dramas back to back: 9-1-1, 9-1-1: Nashville and Grey’s Anatomy.
  • Friday: Celebrity Wheel of Fortune at 8pm, 20/20 at 9pm.

Saturdays in the fall are college football from midday into the night, and Sundays open with America’s Funniest Home Videos at 7pm. After the late local news, Jimmy Kimmel Live! starts at 11:35pm, slipping to 11:50pm when Monday’s game runs long.

The weekend looks nothing like the week. Talk, soap and comedy all vanish on Saturdays and Sundays, and sport, documentary-style shows and films move in. In the run-up to Halloween, Sunday nights after AFV turn to seasonal films such as Hocus Pocus and The Sixth Sense; that is October programming, not the channel’s year-round habit.

Popular shows on ABC

Dancing with the Stars is a dance competition that first aired in 2005 and owns Tuesday nights from 8pm, usually for two hours. We keep a dedicated guide to Dancing with the Stars with the season’s episodes and results.

Monday Night Football dates back to 1970 and is the anchor of ABC’s fall Mondays, with the pregame show at 8pm and kickoff at 8:15pm. Our Monday Night Football page tracks each week’s game.

Grey’s Anatomy is a medical drama that began in 2005 with Ellen Pompeo, Sandra Oh and Chandra Wilson among its original cast. It now runs to 22 seasons and closes out Thursday at 10pm.

Abbott Elementary is a sitcom starring Quinta Brunson alongside Tyler James Williams, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Lisa Ann Walter. It first aired in 2021 and sits at 8:30pm on Wednesdays, paired with Scrubs, the medical comedy that began in 2001 with Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke and Donald Faison.

20/20 is a newsmagazine that started in 1978 and fills Friday from 9pm, often for two hours. It is the one place in primetime where ABC’s news operation shows up.

America’s Funniest Home Videos has been on since 1989 and leads off Sunday evenings, sometimes for two half-hour slots in a row.

How to watch ABC

ABC is free over the air with an antenna through your local affiliate. For streaming, episodes land on Hulu the next day, and Hulu on Disney+ carries them on the same next-day basis.

To watch live without cable, ABC is on YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, Fubo and DirecTV Stream, and on Sling TV in select markets. There is no longer a standalone ABC app, but abc.com still streams with a TV-provider login. Your local station depends on your ZIP code.

Channels like ABC

  • NBC runs the same shape of day: a long morning show, a daytime spine of news and talk, a 6:30pm newscast and a late-night host at 11:35pm.
  • CBS also turns primetime into a night-by-night lineup, though it leans harder on procedural dramas and keeps daytime for soaps and game shows.
  • FOX shares the football Sundays and Saturdays but programs only two hours of primetime and leaves the rest to local stations.
  • Freeform turns much of its October schedule over to Halloween films, if ABC’s seasonal movies are what you came for.
  • The CW is another free broadcast option, with a much smaller network schedule.

Who it’s for

ABC is for viewers who want their news in the morning and an appointment show at night. The weeknight lineup is tidy and predictable, which makes it easy to build a habit around Dancing with the Stars on Tuesday or the Thursday drama block. If you want films, ABC shows only a handful and mostly on weekends. If you want daytime drama, General Hospital is the only scripted show before 8pm.

What time is primetime on ABC?

Primetime on ABC runs from 8pm to 11pm ET, with local news at 11pm and Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm. Monday football nights run past 11pm.

How can I watch ABC without cable?

Use an antenna for the free local signal, or a live TV streaming service such as YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, Fubo or DirecTV Stream. Shows are on Hulu the next day.

What’s on ABC most weeknights?

Good Morning America at 7am, The View at 11am, General Hospital at 2pm and the evening news at 6:30pm, then a primetime lineup that depends on the night.

Does ABC show movies?

A few, mostly on Sunday nights after America’s Funniest Home Videos. In October they lean toward Halloween titles such as Hocus Pocus.