This January, though it’s the start of a new year and a new (mid)season of TV, is also the beginning of the end for many series.

We will start saying our goodbyes this month to some of our favorite TV characters: Cougar Town’s Jules Cobb, The Mentalist’s Patrick Jane, Parks and Recreation’s Leslie Knope and Justified’s Raylan Givens.

Throughout January, networks will debut the first episode of the last season for all of these shows, setting up a sort of framework of premieres. But it’s not all tears and farewell tours - the month also has a lot of new shows and new characters to offer, from tenor knights and unlucky-in-love daters to a new take on Whitney Houston and a 1940s spy.

Below are just a few of the things we have to look forward to on TV through the first month of the new year.

FINAL SEASONS:

TBS: Cougar Town final season

Formerly on ABC, now on TBS, Cougar Town will kick off its final season on Tuesday, Jan. 6. The cul-de-sac crew will pour its last giant glass of wine this season, so some of the guys took a moment to reminisce in the promo below:

CBS: The Mentalist final season Simon Baker’s fake psychic, Patrick Jane, moves to Wednesdays in his seventh and final season on The Mentalist before airing the series finale in February.

NBC: Parks and Recreation final season, Golden Globe Awards recreation’s Leslie Knope, Ron Swanson, April Ludgate, Andy Dwyer and the rest of Pawnee will be gone in a short six weeks. The last season of Parks and Recreation will air two episodes per night throughout January and February before its final episode on Feb. 24. But not to worry, Amy Poehler fans, NBC is giving everyone one more chance to see her hosting the Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11.

FX, FXX: Justified final season, Man Seeking Woman Timothy Olyphant starts his final showdown on Justified when the last season premieres on Jan. 20. On the comedic side, sister channel FXX is launching Jay Baruchel’s Man Seeking Woman on Jan. 14, which FXX is calling an “insanely original comedy.”

JANUARY PREMIERES:

PBS: Downton Abbey The fifth season of Downton Abbey will come to PBS on Jan. 4, when, as the trailer warns, the characters start to discover that “this house has no secrets.”

ABC: Galavant, Agent Carter Marvel’s Agent Carter, a spinoff story of the Captain America movies slated to premiere Jan. 6, meets up with Peggy Carter in 1946 for the newest Marvel series on the network. But just two days earlier, ABC’s four-week musical experiment, Galavant, will make its grand debut. The lyrics video below pretty much sums up the plot as it stands:

Fox: Empire, Backstrom Fox is starting January on a strong musical note with the premieres of Terrence Howard’s “epic family battle,” Empire, leading in to the new season of American Idol, on Jan. 7. Later in the month, Rainn Wilson’s Portland detective based on the book series of Leif G.W. Persson will start work on his first case in Backstrom on Fox, set to premiere Jan. 22.

Lifetime: Whitney The Whitney Houston biopic on Lifetime will star America’s Next Top Model’s Yaya DaCosta, and the TV event has been a popular topic of conversation since the first image of Yaya as Whitney made the rounds on the Internet months ago. Now with key art and a full trailer, the Lifetime original movie debuts Saturday, Jan. 17.

Comedy Central: The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore After Comedy Central is done mourning the loss of Stephen Colbert, former Daily Show correspondent, Larry Wilmore, makes his hosting debut on Jan. 19 with The Nightly Show replacing the Colbert Report.

And last but certainly not least, HBO and Showtime both have big nights on Jan. 11 with the premieres of HBO’s Girls, Togetherness and Looking and Showtime’s Shameless, House of Lies and Episodes.

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