Am Abend schaue ich die Fortsetzung meiner Lieblingsserie, statt wieder die Nachrichten zu lesen.

Yes, you could absolutely say Ich schaue am Abend die Fortsetzung meiner Lieblingsserie ….

German main clauses follow the verb-second rule: the finite verb (here: schaue) must be in the second position. But the first position can be:

• the subject (ich), or
• some other element like a time, place, or object (Am Abend, Gestern, Zu Hause, etc.)

In this sentence, the speaker puts Am Abend first to emphasize when the action happens. So:

• Am Abend schaue ich … → emphasis on the time
• Ich schaue am Abend … → more neutral; emphasis more on ich (the subject)

Both are grammatically correct; it’s just a matter of style and focus.

Both relate to the evening, but they’re not identical:

• am Abend = on the evening / in the evening
  → usually refers to a specific evening or a specific part of the day in a more concrete way.
  Example: Am Abend habe ich keine Zeit. – This evening I have no time.

• abends = in the evenings / at night (in general)
  → means “usually / regularly in the evening”.
  Example: Abends schaue ich Serien. – In the evenings I watch series.

In your sentence, Am Abend schaue ich … could be understood as “(typically) in the evening” in a more general sense, but if you wanted to make the habit idea very clear, you could also say:

• Abends schaue ich die Fortsetzung meiner Lieblingsserie …

Both sehen and schauen can mean to see, but in everyday use:

• sehen is the more general verb:
  Ich sehe dich. – I see you.

• (an)schauen or gucken is more like to watch / to look at:
  Ich schaue einen Film (an). – I’m watching a movie.

For media (TV, series, films, videos), Germans very commonly say:

• Ich schaue eine Serie.
• Ich schaue einen Film.
• Ich gucke Netflix.

You can say Ich sehe eine Serie, but it sounds a bit less idiomatic in this context. Schaue fits well with Serie because you actively watch it.

Die Fortsetzung is in the accusative case as the direct object of the verb schaue.

• Verb: ich schaue – I watch
• What do I watch? → die Fortsetzung – the continuation / the next episode

In German, most direct objects are in the accusative:

• Ich lese den Text.
• Ich kaufe ein Auto.
• Ich schaue die Fortsetzung.

Since Fortsetzung is a feminine noun (die Fortsetzung, singular), die is used for both nominative and accusative singular feminine. So it looks the same as the subject form, but here it’s functioning as the object (accusative).

Fortsetzung literally means continuation. In the context of a series, it can mean:

• the next part of the story
• the next episode or next season, depending on context

So die Fortsetzung meiner Lieblingsserie is like saying:

• “the continuation of my favourite series”
• in natural English: the next episode of my favorite show (or “new episodes of my favorite show”)

Meiner Lieblingsserie is a genitive construction:

• die Fortsetzung meiner Lieblingsserie
  = the continuation of my favorite series

Here:

• Lieblingsserie is feminine: die Lieblingsserie
• The genitive singular feminine of meine Lieblingsserie is meiner Lieblingsserie

You could also say:

• die Fortsetzung von meiner Lieblingsserie

That’s also grammatically possible, but:

• Genitive (meiner Lieblingsserie) sounds more elegant / written / standard.
• Von + Dativ (von meiner Lieblingsserie) is more colloquial and slightly less formal.

So the original sentence uses the more “standard” and natural written form.

In this sentence, statt (short for anstatt) introduces an infinitive clause with zu:

• statt wieder die Nachrichten zu lesen

Here statt behaves like a preposition that governs a zu-infinitive phrase. The structure is:

• statt
  • [other elements] + zu
    • infinitive

Meaning: instead of (doing) X.

Examples:

• Statt zu lernen, spiele ich Videospiele. – Instead of studying, I play video games.
• Er ging ins Kino, statt zu Hause zu bleiben. – He went to the cinema instead of staying at home.

So here: statt wieder die Nachrichten zu lesen = instead of reading the news again.

Lesen here is in a zu-infinitive clause. After certain words like:

• um, ohne, statt, anstatt, außer, als

German typically uses zu + infinitive.

Pattern:

• statt
  • … + zu lesen
• ohne
  • … + zu schlafen
• um
  • … + zu lernen

So:

• die Nachrichten lesen – to read the news (infinitive phrase)
• die Nachrichten zu lesen – to read the news as a zu-infinitive after statt

You need zu because the verb lesen is not the main finite verb of the sentence; it’s part of the subordinate infinitive clause introduced by statt.

Wieder is a sentence adverb meaning again. In this sentence:

• statt wieder die Nachrichten zu lesen

it’s placed right before the object die Nachrichten. This is a very common position: adverbs like schon, wieder, nur, auch often go before the part they semantically “belong” to, but the exact position can change the nuance only slightly.

Possible versions:

1. statt wieder die Nachrichten zu lesen
   – neutral, very natural: instead of reading the news again

2. statt die Nachrichten wieder zu lesen
   – also possible; can feel a little more focus on reading them again.

Both are grammatically fine. The original word order is the most typical in spoken German.

The comma separates the main clause from the infinitive clause:

• Am Abend schaue ich die Fortsetzung meiner Lieblingsserie,
  → main clause

• statt wieder die Nachrichten zu lesen.
  → infinitive clause with statt … zu …

According to modern German punctuation rules, a comma before zu-infinitive clauses is often optional, but with statt / anstatt / um / ohne / außer / als, the comma is strongly recommended and almost always written. In standard written German, you would normally keep it here.

So: the comma is there to clearly mark two contrasted actions:

• I watch the continuation of my series,
• instead of reading the news again.

German usage is a bit different from English here:

• die Nachricht (singular) = a (single) message / piece of news
  e.g. Ich habe eine Nachricht für dich. – I have a message for you.

• die Nachrichten (plural) =

  • multiple news items, or
  • the news program (TV / radio / online news)

So:

• Ich lese die Nachrichten.
  = I’m reading the news (current events, multiple items).

Also, German does not add -s to form “news” as an uncountable noun like English. Instead:

• Singular: die Nachricht (a message)
• Plural: die Nachrichten (news items, the news)

In your sentence, die Nachrichten (zu lesen) clearly means the news in general, not a single message.

Yes, you can say:

• Am Abend schaue ich die Fortsetzung meiner Lieblingsserie, statt wieder die Nachrichten zu sehen.

That would mean: instead of watching the news again (on TV / video).

The choice depends on how you consume the news:

• lesen → if you read articles, apps, websites, newspapers.
• sehen → if you watch a news broadcast on TV or online.
• schauen → also works with TV: die Nachrichten schauen is idiomatic too.

So pick lesen / sehen / schauen depending on whether it’s text or video.

In a main clause, the finite verb must be in second position, and the subject normally comes close to it. So:

• Am Abend schaue ich die Fortsetzung … ✔
• Am Abend schaue die Fortsetzung ich … ✘ (sounds wrong in standard German)

You could move die Fortsetzung to the front for emphasis:

• Die Fortsetzung schaue ich am Abend, statt wieder die Nachrichten zu lesen.

But you cannot freely put the subject at the very end like … schaue die Fortsetzung ich in normal word order. That would only occur in very marked, poetic, or archaic language, not in everyday German.