New Shows in March 2023: TV Premieres for Hulu, Amazon, and Apple TV

The first two months of the TV calendar are a bit of a warmup. While the new year has no shortage of new shows to offer — how else are you going to fit hundreds of series into 12 months? — things really start to heat up in March.

Once the entertainment world puts both the Oscars and SXSW (where some of these new shows will premiere) in the rear view, all eyes turn to the heart of TV awards season and all the prestige vying that comes with it. Certainly, not all the shows in the below collection of March TV premieres will be in that conversation. But there’s always the potential to mint a brand new TV phenomenon in the faint early glimmer of spring.

Where most months have plenty of box-ticking adaptations and franchise extensions, even those in this upcoming March have a slightly different feel. There’s a comedy institution making a return after over four decades. There are a handful of series with a fresh spin on the standard horror show. We’ve got musicals and music competitions and Kiefer Sutherland trying to expose a massive conspiracy. Some of the biggest novels of the 1860s and the 2010s get a chance at a(nother) screen version.

As usual, the shows in these roundups (like the ones we did for January and February) traverse network and cable and streaming and all those confusing areas in the middle. If somehow, none of these pique your interest, there’s also our broader list of Anticipated 2023 TV, which includes shows that will come a good time later in the year. For now, here’s March.

“Cheat” (March 1, Netflix)

Danny Dyer and Ellie Taylor host this British quiz show where contestants have the ability to cheat (if they so choose). If they can outlast their competition and not get called out for using outside info that wasn’t already in their brain, they’ll have a shot at a roughly $60,000 prize pool.
“True Lies” (March 1, CBS)

Image Credit: CBS

Based on the 1994 blockbuster, this show follows husband and wife Harry (Steve Howey) and Helen Tasker (Ginger Gonzaga). In this remake/update from “Burn Notice” creator Matt Nix, Harry is an accomplished international spy, something that shocks Helen when she finally finds out the truth. Before long, Helen is being tempted with the chance of doing some of that same espionage herself.
“Wreck” (March 1, Hulu)

A killer is on the loose on a cruise ship in this British show that straddles comedy and thriller. Oscar Kennedy stars as Jamie, a teenager who works his way onto the ship’s crew trying to track down the whereabouts of his missing sister. Written and created by Ryan J. Brown, the series follows Jamies as he navigates being an amateur detective and sociologist, tracking all the various traditions and cliques on board the MS Sacramentum.
“Daisy Jones and the Six” (March 3, Prime Video)

Image Credit: Lacey Terrell/Prime Video

The ficitional band from Taylor Jenkins Reid’s hit novel gets the on-screen treatment in this 10-episode limited series. Keeping the “non-fiction” framework from the book, the show hops back and forth between interviews with Daisy (Riley Keough) and members of the Six, led by lead singer Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin). Featuring a collection of original songs and a cast that also includes Timothy Olyphant, Suki Waterhouse, and Camila Morrone, the show comes from co-creators Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber, the writers of “500 Days of Summer” and “The Disaster Artist.”
“History of the World, Part II” (March 6, Hulu)

Image Credit: HULU

Over 40 years after Mel Brooks’ film told the “real” story behind the eras of cavemen, the Romans, and the French Revolution, this Hulu series picks up where the original left off. It aims to keep the same format, with history-based sketches and some larger overall arcs. Like its predecessor, the sequel show also boasts an all-star list of cast members and writers, led by Nick Kroll, Wanda Sykes, Ike Barinholtz, and Mel Brooks himself (who wears multiple hats as co-writer and narrator as well).
“Rain Dogs” (March 6, HBO)

The debut series from playwright Cash Carraway features Daisy May Cooper as a single mother trying to provide for herself and her daughter (Fleur Tashjian). When her old friend Selby (Jack Farthing) gets released after a prison stint, the three of them try to figure out how to help each other make it through each new day. Carraway is the writer on all eight episodes of the season, which will air through April 24 as part of HBO’s renewed efforts to have new shows on Monday to pair with the return of Sunday night “Succession.”
“UnPrisoned” (March 10, Hulu)

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Writer and creator Tracy McMillan loosely adapts her own life for this half-hour series that takes a long look at the effects of America’s mass incarceration policies. Kerry Washington stars as a therapist whose already-complicated life gets upturned when her father (Delroy Lindo) is released from prison and moves in with her. Former “Dear White People” showrunner Yvette Lee Bowser serves in the same role on this season, which will have all 8 episodes available to stream on the premiere date.
“A Spy Among Friends” (March 12, MGM+)

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Anyone in search of some Oscar Night counterprogramming could do worse than this real-life story of two Cold War-era spies whose friendship had immense global conseqeunces. Guy Pearce and soon-to-be-returning “Billions” star Damien Lewis lead this show about Nicholas Elliott and Kim Philby, a pair of agents whose lives change as one of them considers jumping ship to work with the Soviet Union. Pearce reteams with “A Christmas Carol” director Nick Murphy, while Lewis and series writer Alexander Cary are both “Homeland” alums.
“Gotham Knights” (March 14, The CW)

Image Credit: Amanda Mazonkey/The CW

The possible death throes of the CW DC empire is this series set in the aftermath of Bruce Wayne’s murder. With the killer still on the loose, a group of young thieves and descendants of Batman nemeses become the target of Gotham law enforcement. Showrunners Chad Fiveash and James Stoteraux oversee the series, which stars Oscar Morgan, Olivia Rose Keegan, Fallon Smythe, Tyler DiChiara, Misha Collins, Anna Lore, and Navia Robinson.
“Extrapolations” (March 17, Apple TV+)

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“Contagion” writer Scott Z. Burns moves from unexpectedly predicting a global pandemic to sounding the alarm bells on climate change, via this limited series about humanity in various stages of crisis. Beginning in the near future and extending out decades beyond, each episode deals with the consequences of a global ecosystem fundamentally changed. Burns and Ellen Kuras are directors on the series, which features a massive ensemble made up in part by Kit Harington, Matthew Rhys, Heather Graham, Sienna Miller, Gemma Chan, Marion Cotillard, Eiza Gonzáles, and Meryl Streep.
“Swarm” (March 17, Prime Video)

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“Atlanta” vet Janine Nabers is a creator on this modern horror series centered on the eerie corners of obsessive fandom. Boasting Donald Glover as both a co-creator and a director, “Swarm” tracks the country-spanning roadtrip of Dre (Dominique Fishback), who builds her life around her devotion to a world-famous pop star. Chloe Bailey co-stars in a seven-episode season assembled by many members of the former “Atlanta” writers room, including Jamal Olori, Ibra Ake, Stephen Glover, and Karen Joseph Adcock.
“Lucky Hank” (March 19, AMC)

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Bob Odenkirk trades in money laundering for academia in this new show based on a professor in the middle of an existential crisis. As he and his wife (Mireille Enos) both stare down the malaise of their respective roles in school administration, they start to reevaulate their marriage in addition to their jobs. Aaron Zelman and Paul Lieberstein’s adaptation Richard Russo’s novel “Straight Man” also stars Diedrich Bader, Suzanne Cryer, Kyle Maclachlan, Cedric Yarbrough, and Chris Diamantopoulos. Like “Swarm,” it will also be featured in the TV Premieres section at this year’s SXSW Festival.
“Digman!” (March 22, Comedy Central)

Imagine, if you will, a world where the biggest stars in the world are archaeologists. Such is the foundation for this now-rare Comedy Central original animated series co-created by Andy Samberg and Neil Campbell. Samberg voices Rip Digman, headlining a main ensemble that also includes Tim Robinson, Melissa Fumero, Mitra Jouhari, and Tim Meadows, not to mention a supersized guest cast filled with pretty much everyone you would expect to drop in for an episode on a show like this.
“The Night Agent” (March 23, Netflix)

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Adding to the growing list of Netflix series about young, rogue FBI agents, this latest one features Gabriel Basso as a man whose specific area of work is the White House. One night, when a super-secret phone line starts ringing, Peter gets thrust into an international….situation. Former “The Shield” boss Shawn Ryan is the showrunner on the series, leading up an adaptation of Matthew Quirk’s novel of the same name. Among those in the rest of the ensemble are Hong Chau (off a strong end-of-2022 run) as the President’s chief of staff and DB Woodside (making his return to presidential matters after his run on “24”) as one of Peter’s Secret Service go-betweens.
“My Kind of Country” (March 24, Apple TV+)

Image Credit: Victoria Will

Country music gets a new competition series, with a trio of judges that are helping push the limits of the genre. Jimmie Allen, Mickey Guyton, and Orville Peck guide a collection of contestants vying for the prize of a lucrative Apple Music deal. Reese Witherspoon and Kacey Musgraves are executive producers and will find their way onto the series as well.
“Up Here” (March 24, Hulu)

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It’s been a while since TV cracked a musical series format that’s both effective and popular. This new Hulu series, set in the waning weeks before Y2K, wil try to buck that trend as it charts the romantic highs and lows of two New Yorkers (Mae Whitman and Carlos Valdes). It’s an assembly of A-list Broadway talent behind the scenes, with “Hamilton” director Thomas Kail, “Dear Evan Hansen” writer Steven Levenson, and all-star songwriting duo Kristin Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez all contributing to the eight-episode season. Among the other folks playing people figuring things out as the new millennium approaches: Katie Finneran, John Hodgman, Andréa Burns, Sophia Hammons, and Emilia Suárez.
“Great Expectations” (March 26, FX/Hulu)

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The latest show to flip the sign to “This TV Industry Has Gone [0] Months Since a Charles Dickens Adaptation” is also the latest show from Steven Knight, who did the same back in 2019 with his Guy Pearce-led “A Christmas Carol.” This time around, it’s Fionn Whitehead and Olivia Colman as legendary literary characters Pip and Miss Havisham. Shalom Brune-Franklin, Hayley Squires, and Matt Berry co-star in the first major screen adaptation of the 1861 novel in over a decade.
“Rabbit Hole” (March 26, Paramount+)

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It’s a tricky time to be launching a drama centered on vast, global conspiracy theories, but Kiefer Sutherland is here to try to thread the needle. He plays corporate spy John Weir, who finds out that he’s way in over his head and the subject of powerful political and financial forces. “This is Us” vets John Requa and Glenn Ficarra serve as writers and directors on the eight-episode season, which also features Rob Yang, Charles Dance, and Meta Golding.
“The Big Door Prize” (March 29, Apple TV+)

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A mysterious device plunges a small town into chaos when the local residents realize the machine can tell everyone their future. Among those wrestling with whether or not to reveal their destinies are Dusty (Chris O’Dowd), Hana (Ally Maki), Giorgio (Josh Segarra), and Gabrielle Dennis (Cass). “Schitt’s Creek” vet David West Read takes his first stab at showrunning duties, working to adapt M.O. Walsh’s novel of the same name.
“Unstable” (March 30, Netflix)

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Real-life father and son Rob and John Owen Lowe star as…a father and son trying to save the former’s professional reputation. In the wake of the death of a family member, the two try to make sure that the famous dad’s tech company continues its stated humanitarian goals. Sian Clifford co-stars as the company’s financial expert, joining the two Lowes at the head of this season, which consists of eight half-hour episodes.
“The Power” (March 31, Prime Video)

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Just as in the Naomi Alderman novel that took the book world by storm in 2016, this Prime Video series spotlights a reality where teenage girls have the ability to send electricity through their fingers. Taking a look at how that development affects government, journalism, crime, and family life, this nine episode season is one of the last marquee Covid-interrupted productions to finally make its way to screen. Toni Collette, Auliʻi Cravalho, Daniela Vega, John Leguizamo, Toheeb Jimoh, and Eddie Marsan are just a handful in the cast of this sprawling, globe-hopping series.