What to Watch This Weekend: NBA Cup Opening Night, Vikings at Lions, and 'Dexter: Resurrection' Season 2

Charge the remote and clear Saturday night. This is a Halloween weekend with a real headline act: the Emirates NBA Cup opens Friday night, Dexter Morgan comes back the same evening, college football stacks ranked matchups all day Saturday, and the Vikings walk into Detroit on Sunday. Here is the whole weekend in the order you will actually watch it — every time Pacific.

Friday, October 30

The screens: Dexter is back, and so is the dread

Start with the killer. Dexter: Resurrection Season 2 premieres Friday on Paramount+ — Michael C. Hall is back as Dexter Morgan in New York, Harrison is carrying the family business, and Brian Cox and Dan Stevens join the cast as new problems. It is timed for Halloween on purpose and it knows it. Our Week Ahead has the full streaming map, and the show's Previously page tracks the season.

Same night, different kind of hunt: Nocturne premieres on Apple TV, with Liev Schreiber as a former soldier turned homicide detective whose quiet new life in Pennsylvania runs straight into a serial killer played by Stephen Graham. If you want your Halloween weekend scary without the slash, that is the one.

NBA Cup opening night: Knicks at 76ers, Clippers at Wolves, Lakers at Warriors

The Emirates NBA Cup group stage starts Friday — every game on the slate is a Cup game, and the league dressed it up like it matters. The early window is New York at Philadelphia at 4:30 p.m. Then the Timberwolves host the Clippers at 5 p.m. — Game Center has the matchup, and our NBA Cup hub tracks the whole tournament. The nightcap is the one the league picked for a reason: Lakers at Warriors at 7 p.m. on Prime Video — Game Center.

Golden Knights first: Devils at Vegas — 3 p.m. PT

Before any of that, the Golden Knights host New Jersey at 3 p.m. at T-Mobile Arena — Game Center. Vegas comes in 9-4-1, the Devils 8-5-0, and an afternoon puck drop in Vegas on a Friday is as good an excuse as any to start the weekend early.

New Music Friday: BigXthaPlug, Queens of the Stone Age, Sampa the Great

Three albums carry the weekend. BigXthaPlug's Better Over Time is his fourth album and a straight return to rap after last year's country detour — GloRilla is among the guests. Queens of the Stone Age drop Perfecth, their ninth studio album, on Matador. And Sampa the Great's Nu Zamrock is her third album and her first since 2022 — Zamrock roots, front to back. Rap, rock, and one of the most original records of the fall, all in one Friday.

Saturday, October 31 — Halloween

College football all day: Notre Dame–Navy, the Gophers, Georgia–Florida, then two nightcaps

Saturday starts at 9 a.m. with No. 5 Notre Dame against Navy at Gillette Stadium on ABC — a rivalry game at an NFL stadium, which is the correct amount of extra for Halloween. The 12:30 p.m. window is loaded: Minnesota at No. 4 Indiana on CBS — yes, the Gophers get the big chair — and No. 17 Florida against No. 3 Georgia in Atlanta on ABC. Primetime closes with No. 1 Miami at North Carolina at 4:30 p.m. on ABC and No. 2 Ohio State at USC at 4:30 p.m. on NBC. Pick one for the main screen and keep the other on your phone like everybody else.

Night hoops: Timberwolves at Spurs, Thunder at Rockets

When the football thins out, the NBA takes over: Timberwolves at Spurs at 5 p.m., and Thunder at Rockets at 5:30 p.m. on NBA TV — Houston walks in at 5-0, and Oklahoma City is exactly the team built to end a run like that.

Halloween night stream: 'Apocalypse Z: New World'

Costumes off, lights down: Apocalypse Z: New World lands Friday on Prime Video — the sequel to the 2024 Spanish zombie hit, with the story moved to the Canary Islands as Europe's last safe place. It leans more action than horror this time, which honestly makes it a better Saturday-night-with-friends pick anyway.

Sunday, November 1

The wild card: the Concours at Wynn, and a free parade down the Strip

The most Vegas thing on this entire guide: the Concours at Wynn Las Vegas runs Thursday through Sunday on the Wynn Golf Club fairways — hundreds of the rarest cars on earth, world debuts from Pagani and Aston Martin, and a Ferrari Enzo crossing the auction block. Every ticket is sold out. But Sunday morning, the winners parade down the Strip — and that part is free. If you are anywhere near Las Vegas Boulevard, that is your Sunday morning. Early risers get a second screen too: the New York City Marathon runs Sunday morning on ESPN2.

Vikings at Lions — 10 a.m. PT

The football main event: Minnesota at Detroit at 10 a.m. The Vikings already beat the Colts in the Harrison Smith game earlier this month; a road win in Detroit is a different weight class entirely, and the division feels it either way. The afternoon window backs it up — Chiefs at Broncos at 1:25 p.m. on CBS and Paramount+ — and Sunday night closes with Eagles at Commanders at 5:20 p.m. on NBC and Peacock.

Close it out: Raptors at Lakers, then 'The Gilded Age'

Toronto at the Lakers at 6 p.m. is the last live ball of the weekend. After that, trade the jersey for the drawing room: The Gilded Age Season 4 premieres Sunday night on HBO and HBO Max — Carrie Coon, Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon and Morgan Spector back for eight Sunday episodes of Julian Fellowes' 1880s New York status war. It is the headline of HBO's whole November, and it is a very civilized way to end a very loud weekend. More premieres are tracked on our Coming Soon page.