The Paley Museum in Midtown Manhattan has unveiled its full October lineup for PaleyFest NY 2026, a seven-day run of screenings and panels that will bring Billy Crystal, Sylvester Stallone, Uma Thurman and the casts of some of television's biggest current shows to the same 200-seat theater that hosted a sold-out Ted Lasso reunion earlier this month. Tickets for Paley President's Circle, Patron Circle, Patron Circle+ partner members and Citi cardmembers went on sale Tuesday morning, with pricing set at $75 for members and $100 for the general public.
According to Time Out, the festival opens October 8 with an exclusive early screening of an episode of Hulu's American Horror Story: 13, followed by a cast and creative-team conversation featuring Sarah Paulson, Billie Lourd, Gabourey Sidibe, Leslie Grossman and Lou Eyrich. Time Out reports that additional panelists for that opening-night event have not yet been announced, leaving open the question of who else might join the AHS lineup before the festival kicks off. The outlet's report, written by things to do editor Rachel Askinasi, forms the backbone of the festival's published schedule.
The rest of the week stacks up fast. October 9 brings a Dexter: Resurrection screening and panel at 6:30pm, marking the 20th anniversary of the overall Dexter franchise with cast members Michael C. Hall, James Remar, Jack Alcott, Bokeem Woodbine and Uma Thurman on hand, according to Media Play News. The original Dexter series premiered in 2006 and remains a flagship franchise for Showtime and Paramount+, per that outlet.
Stallone, Grimes and a Broadway Homecoming Round Out the Week
Sylvester Stallone joins the Tulsa King team on October 10 for a screening and panel at 6pm followed by a separate conversation, per the schedule detailed by Time Out. The next night, October 11, actor Luke Grimes is set to appear at a screening and panel for Taylor Sheridan's CBS drama Marshals at 6:30pm — an extension, Media Play News notes, of Sheridan's broader run of high-rating television output for Paramount and CBS.
Billy Crystal takes the stage October 12 at 6:30pm for an evening panel. His appearance lines up with his return to Broadway in the autobiographical solo show 860, which opens at the Imperial Theatre in October and reflects on losing his Pacific Palisades home in the 2025 California wildfires, according to the New York Theatre Guide. The show takes its title from the street address number of Crystal's destroyed family residence.
The Gilded Age closes out the middle stretch on October 13, with a 6:30pm panel featuring Carrie Coon, Cynthia Nixon and Morgan Spector. The Diplomat wraps the festival on October 14 with its own screening panel at 6:30pm, per Time Out's reporting.
A New Award Marks the Center's 50th Anniversary
This year's festival also debuts the inaugural PaleyFest Award, created to commemorate the Paley Center's 50th anniversary and recognize excellence in media, television and entertainment. The 2026 recipients include Billy Crystal, American Horror Story, Dexter: Resurrection, Tulsa King, Marshals, The Gilded Age and The Diplomat, with each recipient having a curated selection of their work added permanently to the Paley Archive, Time Out reports.
That archive is not a small thing. Founded in 1975 by CBS broadcasting pioneer William S. Paley as the Museum of Television & Radio before adopting its current name in 2007, the Paley Center now maintains a public archive of more than 160,000 television and radio programs, as Hoodline previously reported. The permanent collection spans more than a century of media history from over 70 countries, with its earliest recorded broadcast asset dating back to a 1918 speech by labor leader Samuel Gompers, per the Paley Center for Media.
Presale Tiers and a Familiar Venue Crunch
Ticket access is rolling out in stages. Paley individual, family and supporting members can buy in starting Thursday at noon, with the general public able to purchase tickets Friday at noon, according to Time Out's reporting. Higher-tier membership packages, such as the Paley Center's $1,000 Patron tier, come with perks including complimentary tickets to select PaleyFest NY events and access to a private Patron and President's Circle reception, per the Paley Center for Media's own event materials.
Financial services firm Citi is serving as the official presenting sponsor of PaleyFest NY 2026. Paley Center CEO Maureen J. Reidy has said the corporate sponsorship is what makes the festival's star access and premiere screenings possible, according to TheWrap.
All of it plays out inside the Paley Museum's Frank A. Bennack, Jr. Theater at 25 West 52nd Street, a 200-seat auditorium that has already shown signs of strain this summer. The venue needed overflow rooms during a sold-out Ted Lasso cast panel in August, a dynamic Hoodline has covered alongside a separate live taping of the Pivot podcast with Plaxico Burress and other NFL figures at the same museum. With Crystal, Stallone, Thurman and multiple full ensemble casts now on the October calendar, similar overflow demand seems like a real possibility, though the Paley Center has not detailed specific contingency plans for this fall's slate.
Journalists planning to cover the red carpets and panel Q&As in person must apply in advance for press credentials through the Paley Center's media application portal, per the Paley Center for Media. PaleyFest NY functions as the East Coast counterpart to the annual PaleyFest LA festival in California, giving New York audiences their own shot at the cast reunions and premiere screenings that typically draw crowds on the West Coast.
