Alright, I have heard back from @roux@hexbear.net , @BeamBrain@hexbear.net @FlakesBongler@hexbear.net and @TrudeauCastroson@hexbear.net.

It sounds like Friday evenings may be okay. There wasn't a lot of strong preferences towards a first-time game theme, so I am splitting the difference for a revolutionary-tinged fantasy game. Here's the pitch for what I am thinking so far (thinking about a custom one-shot, looking at a serial-numbers filed off,"yes and" setting as opposed to something established):

As the dread forces of the Necromancer sweep into the Federation of the Riverlands, partisans and resistance fighters have emerged to attempt to defend their communities and their land from the dark empire. Some of your fellow resistance members have been captured and imprisoned in an occupied fort. It'll be a challenge to rescue the prisoners and liberate any useful war material before one of the Necromancer's shadowy and powerful viceroys arrives to carry off the captives.

So, a heist/dungeon crawl with a post-Tolkeineseque vibe. My thought is to make it/run it in Cairn, since it's very quick to learn and run, and doesn't require a complex VTT to manage effectively (although a lightweight one will probably make things easier to keep track of where people are). For voice chat, I've heard that element.io might be a good alternative to Discord (although I'll need to figure out how to use it.)

EDIT: As for time/date, how would people feel about 1/19, around 8:00PM EST? That should be accessible to most people living in an Americas timezone. Once I setup the event, I think that I'd be able to take one 1-2 more players if others are interested as well.