What Time Do New Shows Drop? Streaming Release Times by Service and Time Zone
Quick answer: New Netflix shows and episodes unlock at 3 a.m. ET (12 a.m. PT) on their release date — and so do Peacock, Hulu, HBO Max and Paramount+ originals. Prime Video is the exception: its episodes show up the evening before.
| Date | Title | Service | Expect it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 21 Sep | Futurama, S14 Ep. 9 | Hulu | 3 a.m. Monday — one listing says midnight |
| Mon 21 Sep | WWE Monday Night Raw | Netflix | Live, 8 p.m. — not a 3 a.m. drop |
| Wed 23 Sep | Slow Horses, S6 Ep. 2 · Ted Lasso, S4 Ep. 8 | Apple TV | Date only — Apple's hour isn't in the chart below |
| Wed 23 Sep | The Challenge, S42 Ep. 9 | Paramount+ | 3 a.m. Wednesday |
| Wed 23 Sep | Wonka's The Golden Ticket, series premiere | Netflix | 3 a.m. Wednesday |
| Thu 24 Sep | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, S4 Ep. 10 | Paramount+ | 3 a.m. Thursday |
| Thu 24 Sep | Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, Ep. 10 | HBO Max | 3 a.m. Thursday |
| Thu 24 Sep | Thursday Night Football (Falcons at Packers) | Prime Video | Live, evening kickoff |
| Fri 25 Sep | MobLand, S2 Ep. 2 | Paramount+ | 3 a.m. Friday |
| Fri 25 Sep | Dark Matter, S2 Ep. 5 | Apple TV | Date only |
| Sat 26 Sep | The Great Indian Kapil Show, S5 premiere | Netflix | 3 a.m. Saturday |
Four of these are weekly episodes that have held the same hour all season, so the 3 a.m. rule below does the work. The two Apple TV rows are the exception worth remembering: Apple publishes the date and not the clock time, which is why it sits outside the chart. The full week, service by service, is in everything new on streaming this week.
Every service's usual drop time
| Service | Usual drop time (ET) | Pacific | Applies to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Netflix | 3:00 a.m. | 12:00 a.m. | Originals, released worldwide at the same moment |
| Peacock | 3:00 a.m. | 12:00 a.m. | Originals and full-season drops |
| Hulu | 3:00 a.m. | 12:00 a.m. | Hulu originals; FX series land the morning after broadcast |
| HBO Max | 3:00 a.m. | 12:00 a.m. | Max originals; HBO series instead stream as they air at night |
| Paramount+ | 3:00 a.m. | 12:00 a.m. | Originals and weekly episodes |
| Prime Video | late the evening before | late afternoon before | Its clock is set to midnight in the UK, not the US |
The gist: five of the six big services open the gate at the same instant — midnight in Los Angeles, which is 3 a.m. on the East Coast. Prime Video is the odd one out, and it is early rather than late.
Why does everything land at 3 a.m. Eastern?
Netflix set the convention, and it set it from its own front door. The company runs on Pacific time, so a title that is scheduled for Tuesday goes live at midnight Tuesday in California.
Everyone else copied the habit. Peacock, Hulu, Paramount+ and Max originals now unlock on the same clock, which is why a Wednesday premiere is really a Tuesday-night event if you live west of Denver.
The same moment, four different clocks
| Zone | City | When a "Tuesday" title appears |
|---|---|---|
| Pacific | Los Angeles | 12:00 a.m. Tuesday |
| Mountain | Denver | 1:00 a.m. Tuesday |
| Central | Chicago | 2:00 a.m. Tuesday |
| Eastern | New York | 3:00 a.m. Tuesday |
| Hawaii | Honolulu | 9:00 p.m. Monday |
Hawaii viewers get the strangest deal in the country: their premieres arrive the previous evening, in prime time.
Which titles ignore the rule?
Licensed movies and older seasons — the catalogue stuff without an originals badge — are usually added at local midnight in each region instead of Pacific midnight. That is why a film can be sitting on the UK homepage hours before an American subscriber sees it.
Anime and Korean dramas run on delivery schedules of their own, tied to the broadcast in Japan or Korea, so their episodes can appear mid-morning US time. Live events are simply live: WWE's Monday show streams on Netflix at 8 p.m. ET, nowhere near the 3 a.m. window.
HBO's own series are the other exception worth knowing. They stream on HBO Max the second they hit the linear channel at night, which is how a Friday 9 p.m. finale shows up on the app before most people have finished dinner.
Why is Prime Video always early?
Amazon times its weekly episodes to midnight in the United Kingdom. Run that backwards and American viewers get the episode late on the evening before the date printed in the listings.
The gap shifts by an hour twice a year, when Britain and the US change their clocks on different weekends. If a Wednesday episode of a Prime series is not there on Tuesday night, wait an hour and refresh — do not assume it slipped.
Does the drop time change for a weekly show?
No. A weekly series uses the same hour as a full-season drop; only the number of episodes waiting for you changes. We keep the current cadence for every big title in our guide to weekly versus all-at-once releases, and the day-by-day list lives in New This Week.
Which shows drop weekly right now, and on what day?
The hour is the easy part. The thing people actually miss is the day, because a weekly series keeps one slot for its whole run and no service puts that slot on its home screen. Every weekly title we track through the 2026 fall season is below, with the hour that applies to it. The dated, episode-by-episode schedules live on the linked pages.
| Series | Where it lands | Slot | Hour (ET) | Per week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Futurama, season 14 | Hulu | Mondays | Midnight or 3 a.m. — the two published schedules disagree | 1 |
| Colisión | HBO Max | Mondays | 3 a.m. | 5 |
| WWE Monday Night Raw | Netflix | Mondays | 8 p.m., live | Live |
| Survivor, season 51 | CBS, then Paramount+ | Wednesdays | 8 p.m. live on Premium; next morning on Essential | 1 |
| South Park, season 29 | Comedy Central, then Paramount+ | Wednesdays | 10 p.m. on cable; the next day on streaming | 1 |
| Wonka's The Golden Ticket | Netflix | In batches, not weekly | 3 a.m. | 7, then a two-part finale |
| American Horror Story: 13 | FX, then Hulu | Thursdays | 9 p.m. on FX, the same night on Hulu | 1 (three at the premiere) |
| The Traitors: New Blood | NBC, then Peacock | Thursdays | 8 p.m. on NBC; the next day on Peacock | 1 |
| MobLand, season 2 | Paramount+ | Fridays | 3 a.m. | 1 |
| JAŸ-Z in 8 | HBO and HBO Max | Fridays | 8 p.m., with the second part at 8:45 p.m. | 2 |
| Judy Justice | Prime Video | Weekdays | Evening before, on Amazon's usual early clock | 1 |
The same list, by day of the week
- Monday — Futurama (Hulu), Colisión (HBO Max), Raw live on Netflix at 8 p.m.
- Wednesday — Survivor (CBS and Paramount+), South Park (Comedy Central, Paramount+ next day).
- Thursday — American Horror Story: 13 (FX and Hulu the same night), The Traitors: New Blood (NBC, Peacock next day).
- Friday — MobLand (Paramount+ at 3 a.m.), JAŸ-Z in 8 (HBO and HBO Max at 8 p.m.).
- Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday — no weekly series in these slots at the moment; those days carry full-season drops and films instead. The New This Week page has them.
One rule explains most of the table. A title that belongs to the streaming service keeps the 3 a.m. Eastern convention no matter how its episodes are parcelled out. A title that starts life on a cable or broadcast channel keeps that channel's clock instead, and the streaming copy follows either the same night, as FX does into Hulu, or the next morning, as NBC does into Peacock and Comedy Central does into Paramount+. That is why two shows on the same service can have hours twelve apart.
What about live events and sports?
Live is live, and it wrecks the tidy chart above. Netflix carries WWE's Monday show at 8 p.m. ET; Peacock's baseball coverage starts when first pitch does. Neither waits for the overnight window, and neither shows up early.
The practical difference is that a live title has no file sitting on a server beforehand. Refreshing the app at 3 a.m. will not summon it, and the event page usually goes live an hour or so ahead with a countdown.
Sports simulcasts also expire differently. An on-demand replay may appear within hours, or it may not appear at all, depending on the rights deal — something worth checking before you plan a late-night catch-up.
What if a title is listed for a date but never appears?
Three things go wrong, in roughly this order of likelihood. The listing was for a different country. The title moved and the aggregator did not update. Or the app is showing you a cached row.
Search the title by name before concluding anything. We rebuild our own day lists from service announcements each morning, and the latest one is here.
FAQ
What time does Netflix release new shows?
Midnight Pacific, which is 3 a.m. Eastern, 2 a.m. Central and 1 a.m. Mountain. Netflix originals go live in every country at that same instant.
Is Peacock the same as Netflix?
Yes, for originals. The Paper's second season is a clean example: all ten episodes at 3 a.m. ET.
Why is a show missing at 3:01 a.m.?
Apps cache their home rows. Force-quit and reopen, or search the title directly — the file is usually there before the artwork is.
Do prices change what time you get a title?
Never. Ad-supported and ad-free members unlock a premiere at the same second; the only difference is the commercial breaks. Current rates for each tier are in our 2026 streaming price rundown.
Sources
Release-time practice: What's on Netflix, Dexerto. Peacock timing confirmed against TechRadar. Hulu timing confirmed against Primetimer. Weekly slots cross-checked against Business Upturn (Futurama season 14), Wikipedia (Colisión) and F4W/Wrestling Observer (Raw start time). Listings data via TVmaze.