WHAT TO WATCH New Year's Day

An unmissable day of telly to see in 2026!

This week's best telly includes the highly-anticipated return of some of television's biggest shows including the fourth series of The Traitors, the second series of The Night Manager and the final ever episode of Stranger Things.

Elsewhere, Harlan Coben is back with another bingeable Netflix drama, Run Away, Red Eye returns for a second series on ITV1 and there's a New Year Bake Off to enjoy on Channel 4,

Here are 6 TV shows you can't miss this New Year's Day...

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1

 BRAND NEW DRAMA

RUN AWAY

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New Year's Day

Netflix

In recent years, it's become tradition to see in the New Year with a new Harlan Coben drama on Netflix to binge, and this New Year's Day is no different as James Nesbitt takes the lead in Run Away, which has been adapted by Danny Brocklehurst

It follows Simon, who had the perfect life, a loving wife and kids, a great job and a beautiful home. But then his eldest daughter Paige, played by Ellie de Lange ran away and everything fell apart. So now when he finds her, vulnerable and strung out on drugs in a city park, he finally has the chance to bring his little girl home.

However, it turns out she’s not alone, and an argument escalates into shocking violence. In the aftermath, Simon loses his daughter all over again, and his search to find her will take him into a dangerous underworld, revealing deep secrets that could tear his family apart forever.

Starring alongside James Nesbitt as Simon, are Ruth Jones as Elena Ravenscroft, Minnie Driver as Ingrid Greene, Alfred Enoch as Isaac Fagbenle, Lucian Msamati as Cornelius Faber, Jon Pointing as Ash, Tracy-Ann Oberman as Jessica Kinberg and Annette Badland as Lou.

 8 EPISODES

 STREAM ON NETFLIX  ALL EPISODES AVAILABLE

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2

 FINAL EVER EPISODE

STRANGER THINGS

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New Year's Day

Netflix

Time for one final visit to the Upside Down as the season finale, The Rightside Up lasts 2 hours and 5 minutes.

 STREAM ON NETFLIX  ALL EPISODES AVAILABLE

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3

 NEW YEAR SPECIAL

THE GREAT NEW YEAR

BAKE OFF

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New Year's Day

6.40pm | Channel 4

For this year's New Year Bake Off, teams of Bake Off besties will be invited into the tent for the very first time, as the bakers join forces to battle it out in pairs, for the coveted New Year's cake stand.

Judges Paul Hollywood and Dame Prue Leith, along with hosts Alison Hammond and Noel Fielding, kick off 2026 with four teams of legendary Bake Off bakers from past seasons. Before the bakers can ring in the New Year with a dram or two, they have three New Year baking challenges to get stuck into. In the Signature, the duos create fantastic festive pies.

The action heats up as the bakers pass the baton in a tricky Technical relay. And finally, in the Showstopper, each duo bring their favourite festive movie to life in biscuit form. Which team's Signature will be pied, and whose biscuit movie will get rave reviews?

 STREAM ON CHANNEL 4 

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4

 RETURNING REALITY TV

THE TRAITORS

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New Year's Day

8pm | BBC One

The Traitors is back for its fourth series as Claudia Winkleman returns to host the ultimate reality game of trust and treachery, as 22 people from across the UK descend on a Scottish Castle to try and win up to £120k.

This series, we've been told to expect even more twists, turns, secrets, epic missions, deception, banishments and, of course, murders aplenty.

 12 EPISODES  CONTINUES WEDNESDAYS, THURSDAYS AND FRIDAYS

 STREAM ON BBC IPLAYER 

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5

 RETURNING DRAMA

THE NIGHT MANAGER

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New Year's Day

9.05pm | BBC One

Eight years after its explosive finale, which was watched by over 10 million viewers, The Night Manager is finally returning to BBC One for its second series which has been based on the characters created by John le Carré, expanding the story beyond the source material of the titular novel for the first time.

Tom Hiddleston reprises his role as former British intelligence operative Jonathan Pine. Also returning are Olivia Colman as Angela Burr, Alistair Petrie as Sandy Langbourne, Douglas Hodge as Rex Mayhew, Michael Nardone as Frisky, and Noah Jupe as Daniel Roper.

Jonathan Pine thought he’d buried his past. Now living as Alex Goodwin, a low-level MI6 officer running a quiet surveillance unit in London, his life is comfortingly uneventful. Then one night a chance sighting of an old Roper mercenary prompts a call to action and leads Pine to a violent encounter with a new player, Colombian businessman Teddy Dos Santos, played by Diego Calva.

On this perilous new journey, Pine meets businesswoman Roxana Bolaños, played by Camila Morrone, who reluctantly helps him infiltrate Teddy’s Colombian arms operation. Once in Colombia, Pine is plunged deep into a deadly plot involving arms and the training of a guerrilla army.

As allegiances splinter, Pine races to expose a conspiracy designed to destabilise a nation. And with betrayal at every turn, he must decide whose trust he needs to earn and how far he’s willing to go before it’s too late.

Series two also welcomes Indira Varma as Mayra, Paul Chahidi as Basil and Hayley Squires as Sally.

 6 EPISODES  CONTINUES WEEKLY | ALL EPISODES AVAILABLE

 STREAM ON BBC IPLAYER 

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6

 RETURNING DRAMA

RED EYE

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New Year's Day

9pm | ITV1

The second series of Red Eye seesJing Lusi reprise her role as DS Hana Li for a new investigation alongside guest star Martin Compston.

Joining Jing and Martin in the highly pressurised, rollercoaster world of Red Eye, are Lesley Sharp and Jemma Moore, who also return as Head of MI5 Madeline Delaney and journalist Jess Li.

Inside the US Embassy, the celebrations for a newly appointed US Ambassador to London are shattered when a call, threatening to blow a British plane out of the sky if anyone leaves, triggers an immediate embassy lockdown, trapping guests and staff inside. And that’s when the murders begin, landing Hana Li, as a British cop, in a political and jurisdictional nightmare.

Compelled to join forces with the Head of Embassy Security, Clay Brody, played by Martin Compston, a former colleague who once screwed her over, Hana has to see her way past her distrust of him and focus on the investigation. Because this time it’s personal. The plane that will be blown up is a government jet, and Director General Madeline Delaney is on board.

With a killer wreaking havoc inside the Embassy and evading them at every turn, Hana and Brody must discover who is behind the treacherous plot before time runs out for the hostages within the Embassy and the passengers on board Delaney’s plane.

 6 EPISODES  CONTINUES 2 JANUARY

 STREAM ON ITVX