After being kicked out of his house by his wife, Marcia, stockbroker Gary Hobson is forced to move into a hotel room. There, he starts to receive a mysterious newspaper that is delivered to his door with a yellow cat. At first Gary does not think anything of it, but after a while, he realizes that it is tomorrow's edition of the Chicago Sun-Times. This gives Gary the opportunity to use the Paper for his own gain or to use it to help people. The first case of helping someone was winning $15,000 by betting on horse races, knowing the outcome, then giving it to his blind friend Marissa so she can buy a guide dog. Then Gary knew that a bank robbery would occur, but when he tried to warn the police, they scoffed. Then Marissa went to the bank to try to foil the robbery, and Gary noticed that the paper's headlined of the robbery death toll had changed from 9 to 10. Fearing that Marissa was the new casualty, Gary rushes to the bank. Ultimately he stops the robbery by talking to the robber and after accepting his destiny, plans to send him a winning lottery ticket to help his financial troubles.

As rampant traffic jams prevent him from getting to the airport to stop a plane destined to crash, Gary tries to save a 6-year-old girl (Mae Whitman) hit by a car by getting her the necessary attention at the hospital. However, he soon learns that he can't get to the airport without failing to save the girl. He ends up deciding to save the girl. After she is saved, Gary is shocked to learn that the girl's father was supposed to be the pilot of the doomed plane. However, since Gary was able to save her, the father was contacted just before takeoff, causing the flight to be canceled so he could rush to the hospital. As a result, the plane didn't crash.

After the newspaper shows Chuck delivering twins on the L, Gary and Marissa try to convince him to go through with it. Meanwhile, Gary searches for a mysterious blonde woman.

While searching for answers about the Paper, Gary investigates at the Chicago Sun-Times office building and becomes involved with one of the paper's reporters, Meredith Carson, who is suspicious of his apparent knowledge of a certain story. Gary has to prevent her from discovering the fact that he receives tomorrow's edition of the paper.

Gary tries to prevent and understand why someone would want to kidnap Mayor Mike Garfield's dog. While doing this, Gary uncovers a lottery scheme.

Gary tries to stop a popular basketball player with a life-threatening heart condition from risking his life on the court and dying. While this is happening, Marissa runs into an old flame. Chuck tries to keep his brand-new sports car out of peril.

A woman plans to abandon her baby and take her own life, so Gary attempts to reunite her with her parents, which fails and he starts running out of time to help her. Meanwhile, Chuck uses the Paper to get a date with an attractive woman, Lenore, with whom he shared a taxi.

The Paper reveals that a young boy, Tommy Porter, will accidentally shoot his older brother, Bryce Porter, with a handgun. However, Gary's actions to prevent this lead to the Paper changing to the children's mother, Nikki Porter, being murdered by her abusive ex, Kurt Porter. Gary stops the attack and Kurt is arrested, but Tommy out of fear hides in his treehouse with a gun and nearly shoots Bryce. Gary, reading this in the Paper, pulls him out of the way just in time and convinces Tommy to give him the gun. Seeing one of his sons nearly die shocks Kurt and he seems to come to his senses.

Meredith re-enters Gary's life and she and Chuck use Gary's paper for personal gain, with disastrous results.

Gary learns that his ex-wife, Marcia, will marry his old boss, Phil Pritchard. Later, the newspaper reveals that Pritchard is going to be murdered.

Gary seeks Detective Crumb's help in stopping a bomb that will kill 20 ice skaters. Meanwhile, Chuck is arrested and plots with a man who believes he is Santa.

During a save, Gary becomes stranded in an abandoned building with a homeless boy in 20 below zero weather and it is up to Chuck to save him.

Gary and Chuck get mistakenly involved with the mob after they save a gangster's ex-fiancée, Theresa Laparko, from being shot and then Chuck falls in love with her.

The Paper reveals that Gary will murder the U.S. president on his upcoming visit to Chicago.

While evading the Secret Service, Gary attempts to prevent the presidential assassination.

Gary meets an ex-cop who believes that he is Bat Masterson. The ex-cop sets out to find the person who killed his former partner. Gary helps him solve the case and he starts to put his life back together.

Gary is chosen to serve as a juror in the trial of a man accused of stealing money from his company and is unsuccessful in trying to avoid serving and is even elected foreperson. Gary is suspicious as the man, Phil, acts strangely and is not sure of his guilt. While Gary originally votes guilty, as he is about to read the verdict, the Cat delivers the Paper to him in the courtroom and he learns that Phil's wife holds the key to proving him innocent, causing him to change his vote to not guilty. As the judge sequesters the jury as a result, Gary sends Chuck to talk to Phil's wife who agrees to talk to Gary, but nobody else. With the help of Chuck, Gary escapes and meets up with the wife, but their plan is found out when one of the other jurors, Linda, sneaks in to see Gary and finds Chuck. Phil's wife reveals that Phil had learned of the embezzling scheme while at work and began investigating it. His boss, the head of the company, Prosky was stealing profits from himself and framed Phil for it and has been making threats against his family. She is unwilling to testify and reveals that the only other person who would have, Gus, is too scared after being beaten up at the beginning of the trial before Gary saved him. When Gary returns with this information, he learns that his deception was discovered and is kicked off the jury. After learning that Phil will kill himself, Gary and Chuck track down Gus and convince him to testify. They arrive as the jury is about to declare a guilty verdict and while the judge initially refuses to even hear from Gus, after seeing how scared he is of Prosky, he listens to Gary. While the judge refuses to allow Gus to testify, he declares a mistrial instead and asks the courts to arrange for Gary to never be called for jury duty again. At the end, Prosky is tried for his crimes and found guilty and Gary's fellow juror Linda drags him off for a drink.

Gary partners with a psychic, Claire, whom he at first believes to be phony, to save a young child who has been kidnapped.

The cat and the Paper start being delivered to a dying woman.

Gary falls for an artist he saved. However, Gary faces a tough decision when he learns that she will reunite with an old flame.

Gary is hospitalized after being run over by a car and suffering a head injury. At the hospital, Gary meets a young girl named Rachel who is in need of a heart. Gary faces a moral dilemma when he learns that he could save Rachel's life by missing a save. Gary chooses to save the kid, Tommy, and is shot, causing the kid who shot him, Eddie, to drive away at high speed. Gary has an out-of-body experience where he communicates with Rachel's spirit who convinces him to drop the paper and rely on faith as she apparently dies. It is shown that Gary nearly dies himself, but is revived and the doctors reveal that Rachel did get a heart: the kid who shot Gary, Eddie, flipped his car and died and she got his. Gary and Rachel recover and Chuck makes peace with Tommy who had helped Eddie steal his car which he never recovered.

Gary's father, Bernie, temporarily moves in with his son after Gary's mom kicks him out. After learning about the Paper and enjoying helping others, Bernie decides to stay permanently.

Gary attempts to stop the murder of a college professor, Dr. Price, who thinks that Gary is stalking her. Gary suspects Marissa's college study partner, Jeffrey Craig, is the culprit.

Gary finds out that a greedy businessman wants to purchase McGinty's and an orphanage in order to demolish them and build a parking lot. Meanwhile, Gary must also find a new place to live after his hotel room burns because of an electrical fire and forces him to move out.

Gary must help a Vietnam vet who has the Congressional Medal of Honor when a ceremony in his honor triggers guilt and flashbacks because of a mistake he made in the Vietnam War. Meanwhile, Chuck falls in love.

McGinty's is asked to cater the wedding of Gary's ex-girlfriend and high school sweetheart, who still has some romantic feelings for Gary. Meanwhile, her father has been under police's witness protection for three weeks and the paper warns of trouble at the wedding.

Gary must help a young boy who is ill with leukemia, but who is refusing to undergo treatment. Gary tries to get him to meet Jenny Sloane, Chicago's sweetheart who is ill with cancer.

An old co-worker and friend of Gary and Chuck's, Fred Meanwell, is having a mid-life crisis and Gary and Chuck must stop him having a fatal plastic surgery to impress his girlfriend and enhance his career.

Gary and Chuck become involved with a night basketball program at a local church for inner city youth, where they meet a young nun named Sister Mary. Gary helps stop Sister Mary from abandoning her call after a young man involved with the basketball program is killed during a convenience store robbery attempt, which Gary had failed to stop.

The newspaper arrives with an article written in Russian. Gary saves a cab driver who is able to read the Russian article to Gary. Gary then must save a beautiful Russian violinist, Paulina Rosanova, from being murdered and bring her together with her long lost father.

After learning that a leader of a white supremacist's movement, Darryl Foster, will be assassinated during a march, Gary begins to debate whether he should save his life or let him die. Marissa manages to convince him to save him. The situation is further complicated when the leader's son, Lance Foster, befriends a young African-American kid.

Gary is stressed out, and just wants a regular life. He is having recurring dreams about a psychiatrist encouraging him to take Sundays off from the paper, advice that Gary takes. Unfortunately, he finds out that he needs to convince a famous quarterback for the Chicago Bears, Joe Damski, to stop playing in order to avoid a serious injury. Meanwhile, Chuck and Marissa clash over the management of McGinty's bar.

Gary comes between his cook and an accident-prone librarian, the latter of which falls in love with him for saving her. Chuck turns truthful while dating a Rabbi.

Gary's search for a missing child makes him a suspect in her disappearance. When the police refuse to listen to him, Gary goes into a flooding underground sewer to try to rescue the little girl before it is too late.

After she hides in the backseat of his van, Gary must deal with Princess Sibella, who is believed to be missing after she runs away from her privileged and rigid lifestyle.
This is an homage to the 1953 film, Roman Holiday, starring Audrey Hepburn.

Gary is nominated to fill in a vacant City Council seat and he tries to get a street light installed at a dangerous crossroad where a lot of street accidents occur, but he is told that first he has to vote with them on a project that Gary learns will displace a lot of people. So Gary decides not to vote with them and they decide not to back Gary's project. Gary has to get help from Molly Greene and a former and honest Council member.

Gary has to keep a soon-to-retire Detective Crumb from being arrested due to a blackmail investigation after he becomes the target of a ruthless District Attorney out to prove police corruption.

Marissa is cursed by earrings her new boyfriend stole from a mummy exhibit.

In a "Rear Window" style plot, Gary is injured in a fall and becomes housebound while his broken leg heals. He watches people in the apartment building across the street and is attracted to a new neighbor who seems to have been the victim of a murder almost 50 years ago.

Gary's parents receive the paper when Gary is trapped in an abandoned theatre after trying to save a monkey.

The paper tells Gary that a man, John Hernandez, is going to die in a road accident, so he saves the man, but afterwards, the paper changes and says that the man is going to kill Rachel Stone. Gary foils the attempt and tries to warn Rachel, an Assistant State's Attorney, because the man is a recently released convict and she was the one who prosecuted him. After Gary refuses to tell her how he knows about this, she dismisses him. John puts Chuck into a coma when he steals his car for the getaway. Gary interferes with John's next attempt at Rachel's home and that turns into a hostage situation. He manages to stop Rachel and John from killing each other and convinces John to let him drive the two of them away from the scene and letting Rachel go. They end up at the railways where two kids are shouting for help. One of them is trapped at the rail points with a train approaching and John hops onto a different train but returns in the nick of time to help save the kids at the expense of his own life. Chuck wakes up.

Gary learns that a British person who assisted him with a mission is actually a forger with many enemies. He is willing to return a stolen masterpiece in exchange for help breaking into a museum.

Criminals force Gary to turn over a revolutionary computer program made by one of his childhood friends, Renee, by kidnapping Gary's parents.

Gary reads in the paper that a pylon at a construction site drops and knocks over a nearby building, killing thousands. Gary tries to prevent the disaster from happening only to get knocked out when he gets hit in the head and wakes up two days before the 1871 Great Chicago Fire. He meets Morris, who looks like Chuck, and he also meets Jesse, a young boy who is the brother of a woman, Eleanor, who is a singer at a saloon, and looks exactly like Marissa, and who is a victim of racism. Gary must help Jesse and Eleanor and try to stop the Chicago fire, too.

Marissa sees a vision and believes that her sight is returning. Chuck witnesses a mob murder and Gary, Chuck, and Crumb are taken hostage, leaving Marissa to save them. The mysterious blonde lady returns.

During a blackout which covers all of Chicago, Marissa attempts to save two trapped teenagers, while Patrick, a new bartender at McGinty's, helps Gary out.

After Henry witnesses Gary rescue a clown from a falling bucket, he discovers one of Gary's newspapers and misuses the information contained in the paper to make friends in school and to provide his dad with the winning horses at a race track. Henry's father thinks he has a "gift" and wants to continue using him as a way to make a quick buck.

To stop an explosion, Gary poses as a Navy Lieutenant, but before he can get off the base, he attracts the attention of an admiral who wants Gary to take his daughter to a dance. However, things do not go as planned and Gary ends up imprisoned in a Naval Jail. While in jail, Gary receives the paper and learns that McGinty's is going to blow up. Meanwhile, Henry gets the chance to impact global politics.

Gary becomes jealous when Erica reunites with a childhood friend, Nick Sterling, who is a philanthropist and beloved by everyone. He reads in the paper that Nick will propose to Erica and that the hospital Nick recently completed construction on is going to catch fire at the opening party.

Gary is suspicious when Chuck makes a surprise visit from California with a surprisingly new attitude, claiming that he is very successful in Hollywood. Gary soon learns that Chuck is paying someone to follow him and film his heroic acts in hopes of getting a movie deal.

When Gary interrupts a federal investigation by trying to save a towel boy from being shot in a sauna, he is placed in the Witness Protection Program. It turns out that the people who were going to kill him are mobsters and the spa worker is actually an FBI agent working on a case to bring the mobsters down. He is assigned an attractive-but-surly agent, Toni Brigatti, to watch over him around the clock, which puts off Erica, whom he just got the courage to ask out and makes it difficult for Gary to fulfill his duties with the Paper.

Much to his surprise, Gary runs into his mother in the middle of Chicago. He shadows her and sees her drinking champagne with a strange man. Gary first suspects that she is having an affair, but soon learns that the stranger has tricked her into investing her retirement money in a fictitious company. The two of them try to recover not only her funds, but also those of the con artist's other victims.

Gary gets in the middle of a feud between a former Untouchable, Capone’s last living major gang member, who was just released from prison, and a retired T-Man who helped put him away.

Gary begins to experience medical problems stemming from his frequent lying to Erica about his whereabouts. He decides to come clean and tell her about the newspaper and his heroic acts. However, she has a tough time believing him after his paper gets switched when Patrick, who is looking for an apartment, accidentally takes Gary’s paper.

While in town to discuss a major deal with the Chicago Cubs, star ball player Andy Miller escapes serious harm when Gary saves him from being severely injured in a freak accident. Andy does bruise his shoulder during the incident and Gary takes him to the hospital where Andy winds up falling in love with his physician, Dr. Suzy Pietro. Andy decides to accept the Cubs lucrative offer so he can stay in Chicago and be with Suzy. Unfortunately, Andy's agent does not want him to sign with the team and he soon learns that Suzy is contemplating a marriage proposal from another man. Meanwhile, Marissa becomes acquainted with a man named Emmett Brown.

Marissa's old friend, Julius, aka C-Roc, is in town for a CD signing and Gary has to prevent him from being killed at a concert.

A homeless man plummets to his death while Gary tries to save him. Gary is rattled by his inability to prevent the tragedy and questions his involvement with the paper. When Gary refuses to prevent the next day's bad news, he winds up being forced to confront his own fate when he reads his obituary in the paper.

Crumb is about to publish a manuscript about police corruption in Chicago, when he becomes the target of someone who does not want the book to come out. Gary and Crumb then narrowly escape a drive-by shooting. Federal Agent Brigatti, who recently transferred to the Chicago detective squad, takes on the case and attempts to track down Crumb's potential killer.

Gary tries to prevent an accident involving a rare monkey, but he gets bitten by the animal and is forced into quarantine until it can be determined whether or not he has contracted a rare disease. In the meantime, Gary enlists Marissa's help in preventing an elderly man from being injured in a variety of dangerous mishaps. With the help of her new boyfriend, Emmet, she attempts to save the man.

While Gary is able to prevent a robbery attempt by dangerous criminals, he is unable to convince the local sheriff that the convicts are hiding out in his little town. It turns out that the sheriff, Joe, is an envious old high-school classmate of Gary's who decides to throw him in jail for causing a ruckus. While behind bars, Gary reads in the paper that his mother will be killed by the convicts. When he is unable to convince Joe to stop by his parents house to prevent the impending tragedy, Gary's dad, Bernie, comes to his rescue and they both rush to save Gary's mother.

Together with Sammo Law (appearing in a crossover role from Martial Law), Gary works to recover a priceless Chinese helmet and also protect a thief and his niece from being murdered. Real Life Filming Location: Navy Pier^[71]

Gary saves Detective Armstrong's wife from drowning at a gym. The Armstrongs invite Gary and Erica to dinner at their house, but Detective Armstrong is suspicious about Gary saving his wife, and accuses him of trying to kill her. Later, Erica decides to end her relationship with Gary and Gary must prevent two buildings from being blown up.

Gary meets a man from New York, Sam Cooper, who receives tomorrow's edition of the New York Daily News. However, unlike Gary, Sam hires other people to complete the rescues and uses the paper's knowledge to make money.

In an effort to avoid spending time with his parents, who have decided to move in with him because their town was ravaged by a storm, Gary races off to save a group of ducks and draws the attention of inquisitive Chicago Sun-Times photojournalist, Miguel Diaz. When Gary pleads with Miguel not to run the photo he took of him – so his parents will not find out that he is intentionally avoiding them – the photographer becomes more curious. He realizes that Gary's name keeps popping up in connection with many rescues.

Chuck comes for a visit and offers to take Gary to a Cubs game where a promising rookie, Pedro Mendoza, is going to play. Gary finds himself trying to help the owner of a restaurant who borrowed money from a loan shark, who is now demanding ownership in the restaurant as payment. Meanwhile, Chuck inadvertently changes the course of the day's events by taking a cab from Mendoza.

Gary and Detective Toni Brigatti have to pretend they are a couple for an extended amount of time in effort to catch a jewel thief, while also searching for the gas leak that will cause a ship to explode on Lake Michigan.

Feeling bad that he helped get Miguel Diaz fired from two jobs, Gary tries to find him another job. When Miguel photographs a criminal thought to be dead, he believes that he has a chance at getting his job back at the Chicago Sun-Times. However, things do not go as planned and Gary must save Miguel from being killed.

Gary is arrested and charged with murder after he is found standing right next to the slain body of a man who had earlier threatened to investigate him after the Paper mis-publishes the time of a reporter's murder. Later, Gary becomes a fugitive.

Gary is on the run from the police after the murder of Frank Scanlon. Gary learns that at the time of Scanlon's death, he was about to break a story on a murder-for-hire ring. With the help of Chicago Sun-Times photographer Miguel Diaz, Gary attempts to clear his name. Meanwhile, Detective Brigatti uncovers some evidence of her own, which proves Gary's innocence and implicates someone with whom she works closely in the department, which puts her life in danger.

Gary provides precise weather forecasts to an attractive TV weather personality, Rebecca, who becomes renowned for her accurate forecasts, until the paper shows up at his doorstep one morning without a trace of the next day's weather and the weathergirl quits and is unable to warn of a coming disaster. Meanwhile, Uncle Phil keeps getting fired from one job after another.

Crumb tries to caution Gary that a woman, Rose, who has amnesia, may appear sweet and innocent, but is probably trouble. Gary ignores his warning, even when evidence surfaces that she has a criminal record. When he believes her explanation that an old boyfriend is after her, Gary agrees to loan Rose $25,000 to get rid of him and is stunned when she suddenly runs off with his money.

After preventing Nikki from being injured in a school bus accident, Gary meets the tough-talking 13-year-old and learns that she is clairvoyant and also knew about the accident before it almost happened. Gary has to try to help her realize her abilities are a gift.

Gary's Paper is stolen by Clams, the former recipient of tomorrow's New York paper whose paper stops coming.

Gary is placed in a difficult situation when Miguel's brother, Joey, steals a car. However, Gary's decision to deny knowing Joey ultimately leads to a life-threatening situation.

Gary joins an amateur acting troupe where he finds former detective Crumb participating and later learns that the theatre will be burned down by an arsonist.

Chuck comes back to Chicago and announces he is engaged to a girl named Jade. When Gary meets her, he is shocked because Jade is really Amber, the jewel thief he encountered a few months back and allowed to escape. Gary confides in Marissa who tells him that he must inform Chuck. Gary's not sure what to do, especially when Detective Brigatti, whose career was nearly ruined by her, learns she is back and wants to take her down. Gary confronts Jade, who tells him that she truly loves Chuck and that she is really Jade. He decides not to tell Chuck what he knows. However, the next morning's paper says that a large diamond will be stolen from an auction.

Gary runs into a robber who strips him of everything. The next day, Gary recognizes him and starts to pursue him, but so does a man named Mel Schwartz, an accountant that is trying to become a bounty hunter, whom Gary has to rescue after he gets in over his head.

Gary learns that Lucius Snow, the previous recipient of the Paper, saved his life when he was eleven years old and during the encounter Gary unknowingly became Snow's heir to the Paper. This was supposed to be the series finale but due to a mixup was aired before the final two episodes.

Gary travels back in time to 1929 to the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in order to try to save someone. Eventually after returning to his own time and saving Crumb, Gary learns that the man he saved was Crumb's father.

When Gary meets an Irish man, bad luck begins to center around him, including making a young Irish woman lose her chance at the million dollar lottery when Gary swipes her dollar with which she was going to buy the winning ticket. Gary ends up pretending to be engaged to her while she dodges an INS agent and looks for the man she loves, Nigel, while her brother plans their wedding. Ultimately the woman, Kate O'Rourke, learns that she was just deluding herself about Nigel and he is actually married and she and Gary reveal the truth to her family before Gary has to chase after a dump truck to stop the agent from being killed by accident. There, he learns that the agent, a man named Frank, was actually tracking down Kate because he was a childhood friend of hers and is in love with her, and that Frank lost touch with her because of her brother's intervention. In the end, Frank and Kate get married and Gary sends them a winning lottery ticket to make up for the one he cost her, and Gary restores the Irish man's tab, ending his streak of bad luck.