[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Matlock series premiere.]
Matlock stunned viewers with its last-minute twist in the series premiere, but audiences are going to have a wait a few weeks to find out what happens next. The new Kathy Bates procedural doesn’t return with new episodes until October and at a new time on CBS. We break down the release schedule below.
Matlock stars Bates as the titular character, Madeline “Matty” Matlock, which as it turns out isn’t her real name at all. The Matlock persona is a disguise Matty has adopted as part of an elaborate plan to unearth evidence of corruption at the prestigious Jacobson Moore law firm. Matty is really Matty Kingston, and she’s neither broke nor hated by the grandson she’s raising like she told her new colleagues at the firm in the first episode. The twist also revealed that the series is not recreating the 1980s Matlock TV show with Andy Griffith, but rather its characters have a deep love of it. Matty and her family used to spend hours watching the show together, which inspired her pseudonym.
The Kingstons are rich, and they’re using their considerable resources — and the help of Matty’s age that she says makes her “invisible” — to avenge their deceased daughter, who died of an opioid overdose. Their 14-year-old grandson is also in on the scheme, and he very much enjoys helping out his grandma on their mission to determine which Jacobson Moore attorney intentionally buried documents that would have gotten opioids off the market 10 years earlier. Should Matty be concerned about what lessons about morality this scheme is teaching her grandson? That’s something that Matty’s loving husband, Edwin (Sam Anderson), will worry about moving forward, showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman told TV Insider (see embedded link below).
When is the next episode of Matlock on CBS?
Now that the biggest twist has been revealed, audiences will be in on Matty’s secret doings. But when will we see more? The series was originally supposed to debut in 2023 but was delayed by the Hollywood strikes. CBS gave an early look into the series with the Sunday, September 22 series premiere, but it will switch to Thursdays when it returns.
Matlock Season 1 Episode 1 will air again on Thursday, October 10 at 9/8c on CBS. The premiere originally aired at 8/7c on September 22. The next new episode of Matlock, Season 1 Episode 2, will debut on Thursday, October 17 at 9/8c. It will continue in that time slot for the remainder of the season.
In Season 1 Episode 2, titled “Rome, in a Day,” Matty will be settling into her new role at Jacobson Moore. Olympia and the aptly nicknamed “Team You Three” (Bates’ Matty, David Del Rio‘s Billy, and Leah Lewis‘ Sarah) will take on a lawsuit involving a developmentally delayed teenager whose family claims he’s been wrongly accused of murder. Also, Olympia and Julian (Jason Ritter) disagree on a parenting matter.
Matlock, Series Premiere Encore, Thursday, October 10, 9/8c, New Episode Thursday, October 17, 9/8c, CBS