foolish watcher

What you’ll be watching on ABC this fall

Therese Odell
Advertisements

Welcome to the Upfronts, the networks’ annual declaration of what they will be airing in the fall.  This post is an attempt to organize what we know about what ABC has in store for the fall season: all the new shows, all the renewed shows, and, R.I.P., all the canceled shows. News is fluid right now, so check back in as I will continue to update these posts.

The big story at the Upfronts this year was “The Return of Scripted Television on the Networks.” As for ABC’s contribution towards this narrative, it is a mixed bag. On the one hand, they didn’t cancel any of their scripted series — not a single drama or comedy got the axe this year. But on the other hand, they only greenlit one two new shows, and it they won’t see the light of day until midseason. (The news of the second series literally broke 10 minutes before I was going to post this.) Oh, and did I mention that they are both spinoffs of long-in-the-tooth dramas that they have attempted to spin off previously?

Schedule

MONDAY

7/8 p.m.: Monday Night Football

TUESDAY

7/8 p.m.: Dancing With the Stars
9/10 p.m.: R.J. Decker

WEDNESDAY

7/8 p.m.: Scrubs
7:30/8:30 p.m.: Abbott Elementary
8/9 p.m.: Celebrity Jeopardy
9/10 p.m.: Shark Tank

THURSDAY

7/8 p.m.: 9-1-1
8/9 p.m.: 9-1-1: Nashville
9/10 p.m.: Grey’s Anatomy

FRIDAY

7/8 p.m.: Celebrity Wheel of Fortune
8/9 p.m.: 20/20

SATURDAY

7/8 p.m.: College Football

SUNDAY

6/7 p.m.: America’s Funniest Home Videos
7/8 p.m.: The Wonderful World of Disney

Midseason Shows

The Rookie: North

Official synopsis: Expanding the universe, The Rookie: North introduces Alex Holland who believed his midlife wasn’t worthy of a crisis. But after a violent home invasion ignites a dormant purpose, Alex battles a lifetime of failed commitments by joining the Pierce County Police Department as a rookie. Policing from the urban coast to the rural forest where backup isn’t just five minutes away, Alex must prove to his skeptical training officer, his fellow rookies and himself, that he’s finally found something worthy of the fight. The all-new series stars Jay Ellis, Janet Montgomery, Karen Fukuhara, Chris Sullivan, Froy Gutierrez, Mya Lowe and Malik Watson.

T’s Take: Jay Ellis is a very charming actor and may be the missing piece to ABC’s efforts to expand The Rookie universe. And it looks like ABC might be holding High Potential back to midseason to help serve as an anchor for this series (along with The Rookie, obviously), suggesting they have high hopes for this outing.

Untitled Grey’s Anatomy Spinoff

Official synopsis: No official synopsis has been released as of yet, but it’s described as a Grey’s Anatomy spinoff  “about a team at a rural West Texas medical center — the last chance for care before miles of nowhere.”

T’s Take: You know what? Yes. Absolutely. We need to show the rest of the country what United States health care is like in rural areas, and in states like Texas, which has outlawed women’s health care. I hope the showrunners and ABC are brave enough to shine a spotlight on women dying because they are denied life-saving, medically necessary abortions in my state, and how cutting federal aid — or, as in the state of Texas, refusing federal aid — for health care impacts rural areas the hardest. I hope they go full throttle in this series and hold nothing back. Be brave, ABC.

Renewals

Shows Still Up in the Air

Exit mobile version