What’s On TV Tonight, Tue, Oct 27: 2026 World Series, Dancing with the Stars & Arsenic and Old Lace

Updated: October 26, 2026

Everything worth watching on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, across 38 channels.

The World Series owns Tuesday night, and everything else is a consolation prize

FOX has cleared three hours for the 2026 World Series from 8pm ET (5pm PT), and it is the one thing on television tonight that cannot wait for a replay. Whatever else you had planned, that is the pick.

The cost is real, because the other networks have put their best cards down at the same minute. ABC has two hours of Dancing with the Stars: Horror Movie Night at 8pm ET, the one night of the season that matches the week on the calendar. NBC has three hours of NBA Basketball, also from 8pm ET (5pm PT). CBS opens with NCIS at 8pm ET/PT (7pm Central) and then keeps the franchise going, with NCIS: New York at 9 and NCIS: Origins at 10. Three hours of one brand on one channel is a confident bet that its audience stays put.

If baseball isn’t your thing, Dancing with the Stars is the strongest alternative. A themed week gives the show a reason to be watched live, and ABC follows it at 10pm with RJ Decker.

Nine o’clock is a procedural brawl

The 9pm slot is the only hour with real competition for people who want a story rather than a result. Chicago Fire runs on ION at 8, 9 and 10pm ET/PT, a straight three-hour block of the show’s fourteenth season. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit does the same on USA Network, at 8, 9 and 10pm, and it is on season 27.

The better argument is for the two schedules that start something. Lifetime begins season three of Castle at 8pm ET and keeps going, with the next episodes at 9 and 10:03. SundanceTV starts season 14 of Law & Order at 8 and runs it through 9 and 10. If you were going to binge a procedural tonight, these two let you start at the top of a season rather than drop in at the middle of one.

Elsewhere, Cozi TV has the evening’s third opener: the third season of Two and a Half Men, beginning at 9:30pm ET. IFC is running the first season of the same show, six episodes between 8 and 10:30.

Halloween week gives the movie channels something to do

It is four days to Halloween and the movie slate shows it. Freeform has Beetlejuice (1988) at 9pm ET, two hours, and AMC follows at 9:15 with A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985). Those two overlap almost entirely, so choose by taste. Beetlejuice is the easier watch.

Turner Classic Movies has the neatest evening for anyone who doesn’t want a modern blockbuster: Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) at 8pm ET and I Married a Witch (1942) at 10:15. Run them back to back and you have a decent old-Hollywood double bill with only a short break between.

For something louder, Showtime pairs 300 at 8 with Troy at 10, and Syfy has Gone in 60 Seconds at 8 and Con Air at 10:30. TNT is later out of the gate: Black Adam at 8:15, then Wonder Woman 1984 at 10:45. Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Mystery both put movies at 8pm ET and 10pm ET too, for anyone settling in early with a seasonal mood.

The quiet lane

Classic-TV fans have a good night without trying. Heroes & Icons runs three Star Trek series in a row, with the original at 8pm ET, The Next Generation at 9 and Deep Space Nine at 10. MeTV counters with The Andy Griffith Show at 8, then Everybody Loves Raymond and The Golden Girls. Late, Bravo has Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen at 9:15pm ET, wedged between two Real Housewives of New York City episodes.

The short version: watch the World Series on FOX; if it doesn’t grab you, Dancing with the Stars on ABC at 8pm ET, then Beetlejuice at 9.

What’s on tonight — Tuesday, October 27, 2026