What to Watch This Weekend: ‘The Diplomat’ Season 4, ALCS Game 5, and Cowboys-Packers at Lambeau

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2026

This is the rare weekend where every screen in the house earns its keep. Netflix just handed you a full season of The Diplomat, Peacock dropped an entire horror series at once, and Cleveland hosts two ALCS games with a pennant on the line. Saturday stacks a top-five college football fight on top of the UFC, and Sunday runs from breakfast football in London to Cowboys-Packers under the lights at Lambeau. Here’s the whole weekend, sorted.

Friday: the binge drops land, and Cleveland opens the night

Start Friday in Cleveland. The Guardians lead the Rays 2-1 in the ALCS after Thursday’s 3-2 win, and Game 4 goes Friday at 6 p.m. ET at Progressive Field on TBS, truTV and HBO Max. Our Game 4 preview has the pitching matchup and what Tampa Bay has to fix before this series gets away from them.

Then the couch takes over. The Diplomat Season 4 landed on Netflix Thursday, all episodes at once, with Keri Russell’s Kate Wyler back in the middle of an alliance that never stays polite for long. It’s the weekend’s easiest yes: a full season, no weekly wait, and the kind of cliffhanger writing that turns “one more episode” into 1 a.m.

Halloween season gets its big one early: Crystal Lake, Peacock and A24’s Friday the 13th prequel, released all eight episodes Thursday. Linda Cardellini plays Pamela Voorhees, a mother whose grief over her son Jason curdles into the thing the movies only hinted at. It’s a binge built for this month — start it Friday and you’ll finish it with the lights on.

Marvel fans have homework too. VisionQuest opened on Disney+ this week with its first two episodes — Paul Bettany’s Vision, James Spader back as Ultron, and the closing chapter of the trilogy WandaVision started. Catch up this weekend before the next pair of episodes lands Tuesday, October 20.

Two more returns worth your Friday: Tulsa King Season 4 premieres today on Paramount+, with Sylvester Stallone’s Dwight Manfredi running his crew and Gretchen Mol joining the cast as Tulsa politician Amanda Clark — and a fifth season already ordered. And The Lowdown Season 2 started Wednesday on FX and Hulu: Ethan Hawke’s Tulsa truthstorian Lee Raybon is back, Tommy Lee Jones joins as his estranged father, and the first two episodes are up now with new ones every Wednesday.

Movie night has real options. Sacrifice, new on Netflix today, puts Chris Evans and Anya Taylor-Joy at the center of a save-the-world stunt that goes sideways. On HBO Max, The Death of Robin Hood gives Hugh Jackman the darkest version of the outlaw ever filmed, with Jodie Comer as the nun who nurses him back to health and has to reckon with what he’s done. And if you want the weekend’s best left-turn, Netflix also dropped Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald, Judd Apatow’s documentary on the most quotable comic of his generation.

Saturday: a top-five showdown, a possible pennant, and a fistfight in Edmonton

Saturday noon is stupidly good. No. 4 Ohio State visits No. 5 Indiana on FOX — a rematch of last year’s Big Ten title game, in Bloomington, with the conference lead and a playoff inside lane on the line. Same window, Florida visits No. 7 Texas on ABC; our Texas-Florida preview breaks down why the Longhorns opened as 9.5-point favorites after the Red River loss.

At 3:30 p.m. ET it’s the Third Saturday in October: No. 6 Alabama at No. 14 Tennessee on ABC, still the meanest rivalry weekend on the calendar. The night window closes with Florida State at No. 3 Miami at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN, then No. 2 Notre Dame at No. 8 BYU on ABC — two unbeaten teams in Provo, and the loser’s playoff math gets ugly fast. The full slate lives on our college football hub.

At 8 p.m. ET, baseball takes the main screen: ALCS Game 5, Rays at Guardians on TBS, truTV and HBO Max. If Cleveland won Friday, Saturday night is a pennant party — the Guardians would close the series at home and head to their first World Series meeting with the Brewers, who swept the Dodgers and haven’t played in a World Series since 1982. If Tampa Bay evened it up, Game 5 is the pivot of the whole postseason. Either way, it’s the best ticket of the weekend, and the World Series opens Friday, October 23 on FOX.

Same hour, different violence: UFC Fight Night from Rogers Place in Edmonton streams on Paramount+, main card at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT. No. 10 welterweight Joaquin Buckley faces No. 13 Mike Malott in the headliner, with Erin Blanchfield vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius in the co-main. The betting story is the fight before the fight — Buckley opened as a heavy favorite and the line flipped to the Canadian during fight week. Our Edmonton preview has the full card and the matchups that matter.

Sunday: London for breakfast, Vegas in the afternoon, Lambeau at night

Sunday starts at 9:30 a.m. ET with the Texans and Jaguars at Wembley Stadium in London on NFL Network — coffee football, the best kind. The 1 p.m. ET window is wall-to-wall: Ravens at Browns, Panthers at Eagles, Steelers at Buccaneers, Jets at Patriots, Saints at Giants, Bears at Falcons and Titans at Colts across CBS and FOX. Keep the whole slate straight on the NFL hub.

The afternoon belongs to Vegas. The Bills (4-1) visit the Raiders (3-2) at Allegiant Stadium at 4:25 p.m. ET on CBS, with Buffalo favored by 5.5 as of Friday’s FanDuel line. A top AFC team walking into the loudest building on the Strip is exactly the kind of game that doesn’t follow the script — and the Chargers at the Chiefs runs in the same window on CBS if you’re flipping.

Sunday night closes it properly: Cowboys at Packers, 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock. Green Bay (3-2) is a slight home favorite over Dallas (2-3) at Lambeau, in the kind of October night game this rivalry was built for. There’s no baseball Sunday — the ALCS takes the day off before a possible Game 6 Monday in St. Petersburg — so use the gap to finish Crystal Lake, or run the horror double feature Hulu is serving Sunday with Companion and Wolf Man both landing that day. Monday night, Commanders at 49ers on ESPN and ABC puts a bow on the week.

The soundtrack and the wild card

New Music Friday is led by Lucky Daye’s ALOUD! — 15 tracks, guests including Leon Thomas, Pusha T and Muni Long, and a singer who sounds like he’s done asking permission. Our New Music Friday roundup has the full slate, and Daye’s road to this album is in our ALOUD! story. Also out today: Gucci Mane’s Against All Odds, K. Michelle’s country turn Jesus & Whiskey, a new A$AP Rocky single, “Shroom Clouds,” and Zach Bryan’s EP Young Manhood & Other Donatable Organs for the country lane.

The wild card: Ghostface is back on your TV today. Scream 7 arrives on Prime Video this Friday after a $207 million theatrical run, with Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox back in the fold and the franchise’s messiest production saga somehow ending in a movie people actually showed up for. It’s already on Paramount+ with the full seven-film collection if you want the marathon version — about 13 hours, split it across two nights like an adult. And if slashers aren’t your house, Prime also has Masterplan today: Stanley Tucci as a retired thief recruiting his estranged kids to steal the Mona Lisa. Pick your fighter.