Supplementing its lineup with actuality fare, recreation exhibits, newsmagazines, sports activities and occasional Hulu sequence reruns, ABC has the fewest scripted exhibits of the printed networks that program three hours of primetime this season — 9 — 6 dramas and three comedies, together with the six-episode ultimate run of The Conners. Examine that to 18 for CBS, 14 dramas and 4 comedies; and 15 for NBC — which, like ABC has an evening of NFL soccer within the fall — 11 dramas and 4 comedies.
In contrast to CBS or NBC, ABC doesn’t have pilots — common or planted spinoffs — in competition for subsequent season. The community has picked up one straight-to-series drama for 2025-26, spinoff 9-1-1: Nashville. With few scripted exhibits on the air, no pilots within the pipeline and an present sequence, The Conners, departing as 9-1-1: Nashville is approaching, there isn’t any nice strain for main scripted slate cuts heading into subsequent season for lack of shelf house. Nonetheless, there are two ABC exhibits closely on the bubble, freshmen Physician Odyssey and Shifting Gears. Extra on that in a bit.
Up to now, ABC has renewed its flagship comedy Abbott Elementary and red-hot freshman crime sequence Excessive Potential for 2025-26. Quite a few different dramas are just about a lock to affix them. That features veteran procedural 9-1-1, which, in its second yr on ABC, stays a high linear and digital performer for the community and Hulu, in addition to fellow veterans Gray’s Anatomy and The Rookie, whose linear rankings usually are not as strong as they was once, one thing the exhibits greater than make up for in sturdy streaming viewership on Hulu.
In the meantime, Will Trent could also be ABC’s underrated success story. Now in its third season, the procedural starring Ramon Rodriguez truly is probably the most watched ABC scripted sequence in linear Reside+Identical Day (9-1-1 is second in viewers and #1 in L+SD adults 18-49). With its streaming numbers additionally strong, Will Trent is taken into account a shoo-in for a renewal too.
That leaves the 2 scripted sequence which might be on the bubble for subsequent season, drama Physician Odyssey and comedy Shifting Gears.
Each are headlined by high TV stars, Joshua Jackson and Don Johnson (Physician Odyssey) and Tim Allen and Kat Dennings (Shifting Gears). Each additionally received off to sturdy begins, particularly Shifting Gears; it’s the declines that adopted which have left the exhibits in limbo.
The drop-off is especially vital for Shifting Gears, which launched its 10-episode midseason run huge, with 6.1 million Reside+Identical Day viewers, and ended it with 3.8M. Its premiere demo score additionally was off by half by the finale. Physician Odyssey, which just lately received a efficiency bump from a 9-1-1 crossover, is at about 3.5M L+SD viewers, off from 4.2M for the premiere.
Each bubble sequence, from twentieth Tv, began sturdy on streaming too. Physician Odyssey, whose trailer set a report for a brand new broadcast sequence with 77.8M views within the first 48 hours, amassed 13.6M cross-platform viewers for the premiere in its first week; Shifting Gears‘ pilot episode did even higher, logging nearly 17M cross-platform viewers over that interval for ABC’s greatest new sequence launch in additional than six yr. However neither present exhibited the expansion curve of Excessive Potential, which closed out its freshman season with sequence excessive multi-platform rankings.
With its slick manufacturing values and large stars, Ryan Murphy’s cruise ship medical drama Physician Odyssey is pricey to make, and it may go both means on the renewal entrance, I hear. Probably with that in thoughts, the upcoming Season 1 finale has an ending that would function a sequence finale, sources stated.
Whatever the end result, Murphy, one among Disney’s high TV creators, is predicted to have a minimum of two sequence on ABC’s schedule subsequent season with 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Nashville.
In the meantime, Shifting Gears ended its first season on a cliffhanger, with star Dennings, in an interview with Deadline, teasing what followers may anticipate if the comedy is renewed and weighing on the notion that it’s a crimson state present.
Shifting Gears may get a lift from the truth that ABC has no comedy pilots. With The Conners ending, the community could be right down to a lone comedy sequence, Abbott Elementary, subsequent fall, if the Tim Allen sitcom will not be renewed. Whereas it’s multi-cam, the extra cost-efficient half-hour format, Shifting Gears boasts high-profile solid, which additionally contains Seann William Scott, making the present pricy for the style.
In each circumstances, Disney/twentieth TV’s lengthy historical past and shut relationship with Murphy and Allen can be more likely to come into play.
