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Thoughts on ABC working on a Scrubs reboot as well as another new spin-off of The Rookie – both attached to 20th Television

by Sports Benches

Today, ABC secured not one but two additional development projects in the last month of 2024 – one is yet another spin-off of The Rookie being set in Washington State and the second is the Scrubs sitcom reboot originally aired in the 2000s.

Right now, all of their current scripted shows are taking the mid-season break – with more coming back (Will Trent & The Rookie) and another coming in (Shifting Gears soon and later The Conners’ one last ride), while management is thinking about their next move going into 2025.

Here’s a list of projects that currently on the table lately:

Sitcom

  • Sisters-In-Law
  • Do You Want Kids?
  • A Scrubs reboot

Drama

  • 9-1-1 spin-off in Hawaii
  • Vital Signs
  • The Rookie spin-off in Washington State

We all know Scrubs has been one of the now former ABC Signature’s popular property of sitcoms (previously it was Touchstone Television until 2007 followed by ABC Studios until 2020) throughout the 2000s – firstly on NBC for the first six followed by ABC during the last two seasons. 

Now they would want to try it again and see if this will work in this decade, so 20th TV can get the opportunity under the microscope since they will oversee all of ABC’s scripted programming from now on.

It’s bit of a surprise since someone like Bill Lawrence wants to work on this by setting the scene where it left off back in 2010, even though he currently has huge links with Warner Bros TV. ABC already has Tim Allen back as one of their star personnel on Shifting Gears, so better to build on Abbott as surely not another revival would make things work when Scrubs already run its race a long time ago. 

Gotta say, probably a non-starter I guess even if it makes into pilot.

The same would say for yet another spin-off of The Rookie & this time it would have to do with a cop starting his new job in Washington State. I guess they’re trying to mirror a more comedic version of the NCIS franchise from CBS but with more cop work rather than something different like the Feds spin-off which only lasted one season amid the strikes last year. 

Maybe that would work in another Disney led platform like Hulu but there’s more than enough content to fit on ABC across every day of the weekend — don’t think another Rookie spin-off is gonna benefit their audience that much either as well as to the show’s fan base. The fans already have been hurt once before and they don’t want to get run over yet again for a potential spin-off that may not last long.

Considering the new season of The Rookie starting soon next month, they may not be finished just yet but maybe it’s best to finish things off where it all began at some point rather than bringing up another spin-off whose plot looks very similar but under a new location. Why they can’t just make this happen for some time as part of the show, not go completely separate from it under a new project.

All in all, I’d pick either or even any two of the new sitcoms over a Scrubs reboot as well as a brand new 9-1-1 spin-off & move Grey’s Anatomy back to Sundays over the other two as above. 

It would be great if ABC can find one that is legally awesome having overlooked The Good Lawyer 12 months ago also due to the strikes holding back unfortunately but that could wait until the time they feel is right – we’ll have to find that out soon enough.

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Thoughts on ABC picking up a new medical drama project about a female fan who gets her wish to be part of the show as a Doctor called Vital Signs from Brian Tanen

by Sports Benches

One week ago, ABC has added another drama project in the works (most likely for season 25/26) alongside a completely new Hawaiian 9-1-1 spin-off called Vital Signs. 

So this is yet another medical drama but this time it’s all about someone named Emmy, who loves watching a medical show gets her wish to be part of a medical show as a doctor on Vital Signs, after being so unhappy with her life & wants to be inspired as one of the members on their medical staff. 

She loves seeing them save lives of patients while forging romantic relationships along the way – something we always see on TV as fans in real life.

Then one day, she is thrown into the deep end when Emmy is transported and has woke up at the hospital by surprise as a newly hired doctor, but having watched every episode of it, she knows what it takes to actually save lives that happens around the clock 24/7.

Just didn’t know it’s possible that you can perform to try save patients’ lives on a medical drama show like Emmy is doing after she being so inspired by it but not in the real world unless you apply and then get to be part of everything else reality TV that isn’t medical related like MasterChef (cooking), The Block (house/renovation), etc.

Although if you are medically qualified to practice and perform being a doctor, nurse or surgeon that would usually take place after years at Medical School, then yea, go for it. 

But hey, there’s one right there in the form of Vital Signs; yes, you can perform CPR while providing first aid as this is true without needing any qualifications. But when it comes to surgery and all other extreme cases to diagnose/fix, please don’t try this at home – not recommended.

Gotta say though this is the best yet to come if Vital Signs does make it to the pilot stage at some point within the year-long development guidelines.

Should the show be a series order at some stage, I guess they can be an excellent complement to Grey’s Anatomy if they stay on albeit at a new time slot like Sundays or have it aired on Wednesdays on its own or else come out mid-season in place of The Rookie if they don’t get an 8th series renewal at season’s end. 

That’s because Thursday nights would most likely be dominated by a slate of Ryan Murphy shows like 9-1-1, Doctor Odyssey and possibly 9-1-1 Hawaii since he and Disney have a great relationship together.

This project will be led by Brian Tanen, 20th Television and Kapital Entertainment after they saw ABC as the perfect fit ahead of other networks across different offers. 

Tanen worked with ABC before across multiple shows like Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, Devious Maids (on Lifetime when it was originally rejected by ABC) and Grand Hotel which was attached under the former ABC Studios arm. 

Although he had his first touch with 20th TV in recent years when it comes to Love, Victor on Hulu that ran for three seasons & no doubt he will work with them again since 20th TV has now taken over ABC Signature. They will be one who will oversee most of the network’s future scripted both drama and sitcom projects going forward as time will tell sometime in 2025.

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Thoughts on ABC’s early 2025 schedule for mid-season with new show premieres, season resumption and season finale dates revealed

by Sports Benches

There was a huge announcement about ABC’s mid-season schedule beginning in January 2025 and finally not only we will have season premieres for some new shows both reality & scripted but also season resumptions and season finale dates for some already booming content as well. 

Comedy/Sitcoms

Let’s start with the comedy side and it looks like Tim Allen’s brand new show Shifting Gears will kick off Wednesdays at 8pm starting January 8th followed by the ever popular Abbott Elementary to round off the hour at 8.30pm. Then 9 & 10 pm slows will be taken by both Celebrity Jeopardy and the already returning What Would You Do? social experiment show.

What does it mean for The Conners? Well looks like their six-episode journey towards the finish line for season 7 will begin around the Spring time in March. 

This is interesting as maybe we will get to see all three sitcoms after all while they can always throw in another version of The Bachelor franchise if they like or else have a bit of Steve Harvey airtime (total of 90 minutes) like it was earlier this year.

Oh, it’s also nice to see the updated Shifting Gears logo that is good for TV now this is set for takeoff not long from now. You can see the pilot version of the show above before their full season approval by the network not long later. 

Drama

Looks like High Potential and Doctor Odyssey will get a second half season run since their new shows have been going relatively well. HPI to be back in action to solve crimes straight after Christmas and New Year where they will be sandwiched between mid-season premieres of Will Trent and The Rookie at 9pm since Dancing With The Stars have already finished with their year by now. Who would love a full night of dramedys? Everyone asked and ABC has delivered it in return.

Plus, Doctor Odyssey, 9-1-1 and Grey’s Anatomy as part of the Thursday band will be back to empty the tank from early March to around mid-late May as usual.

Everything else?

Yes, Monday night will be seen differently other than a new season of The Bachelor at 10pm, with one coming out the Hulu unscripted library called The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. There’s still no premiere yet for Celebrity Wheel of Fortune for Pat Sajak’s final wheel as host but looks like it will either be on Monday or Wednesday for the spring cycle. Again, maybe Wednesdays would be a good time to roll off both on a high going into mid-2025 on Pat’s Celebrity Wheel (will be expected to continue next season under everywhere man Ryan Seacrest) and The Conners. 

And if that’s not enough, we finally see the season premiere reveals for a number of other new unscripted shows. The revival of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition will be home on Thursdays for at least two months starting January 2 & the long-awaited Docuseries Scamanda will finally begin from January 30 until the usual Thursday scripted gang takes over again.

Then we will get to see which next new comedy and drama shows will be up for pilot or maybe straight-to-series when these projects usually hit within the year-long development mark also going into early next year as most future studio ties will be under 20th Television going forward having recently took over ABC Signature. We shall find out until then including the possibility of an all-new 9-1-1 spin-off (not FOX’s Lone Star) specifically for ABC that could take place from Hawaii.

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Thoughts on ABC picking up another comedy project on Do You Want Kids? from Rachel Bloom & Dan Gregor even though it’s set under single-camera

by Sports Benches

A few weeks after ABC announced their first recent in-development project beginning with the next year-long cycle for comedy named Sisters-In-Law, they’ve picked up another one earlier today from the husband & wife duo of Dan Gregor and Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex Girlfriend star on The CW) – it’s Do You Want Kids? 

They will both be writing and executive producing together with Bloom also set to be the leading cast member herself. Not only that they were fortunate enough to have 20th Television onboard who just merged with ABC Signature a few weeks ago under the one roof as one of their own studio members Steve Levitan will help them oversee this next exciting project.

This plot is about a married couple who in one universe has a baby while the other does not have a baby. According to Dan via Twitter now X post today, he and his wife is writing this next TV comedy project together about their young daughter & how will this impact their lives – which is what we’re about to see should “Do You Want Kids?” be developed into a pilot and maybe a series run at some point. 

So pretty much this is loosely based on themselves & thejr current lives as young parents alongside their child of one.

Interesting and what’s also interesting is that it will be under a single-camera format — despite ABC’s desire to have more new half-hour shots that is more affordable in front of a studio audience, which is the multi-camera stuff as if you’re staging theatre for TV.

First of all, don’t see Abbott Elementary on the axe at all when they’ve been the network’s strong sitcom performer since its inception back in December 2021. If and when the show does end, Quinta Brunson will be the first person to make this announcement. Although if ABC wishes to make one more room for single-camera content on top of Abbott, then it wouldn’t be a bad idea though if they really want to fill up their Wednesday comedy slate like it was in the past.

They haven’t had any brand new comedy shows since Not Dead Yet (also a single-can sitcom & now gone after two seasons) made their debut earlier last year and then the strikes happened up until October 2023, with Tim Allen’s brand new multi-camera sitcom Shifting Gears set to begin its full season filming not too long from now that is expected to arrive on the air by February 2025.

For now, fingers crossed if “Do You Want Kids?” will make it into pilot around the same time that could hopefully be given an extended run for the next Fall or even mid-season block either late next year or early 2026.

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Thoughts on ABC Signature now becoming 20th Television as of today

by Sports Benches

Today we saw a huge change within ABC and Disney having recently found out that they won’t change the ABC Signature logo & its on-air ident — despite wearing the current on-air bug since its last update for a few years now. Instead, ABC Signature will now be merged under 20th Television effective immediately to kickstart the new month of October.

So will we continue to see tonight’s episode of High Potential and Jimmy Kimmel Live as well as Thursday’s nights episode of Grey’s Anatomy and also future episodes of The Rookie in early 2025 being an ABC Signature production? 

Don’t know but I assume probably that will continue at least during the short term until the end of their respective contracted season in around May 2025, so that would be yes. Then depending on their series renewal for 2025-26, we will definitely see those shows being relocated under 20th TV’s production but it will still be on ABC.

Not everyone will notice about the on-screen changes very quickly since this season’s ABC Signature slate of scripted/unscripted shows have either already been wrapped up or currently midway through production.

Yeah, no surprise to see this coming when ABC Signature chose not to get their logo/on-air ident updated despite the network’s logo change a few years ago. However, we know the Fox-Disney merger was of course behind this when it comes to the studio production side of things. Now this makes sense for ABC Signature to farewell after a decades-long run (that began with Touchstone TV followed by ABC Studios and then ABC Signature over these past few years) by joining sister subsidiary 20th Television that will make one studio arm a whole lot bigger & also effective all under the one roof. Also sending out thoughts to some staff impacted by the merger with some leaving while some will get new roles at 20th TV.

What’s next now? Shutting down/selling up Freeform – one of Disney’s basic cable general entertainment channels. The only things they’re doing right now is having a bunch of reality stuff on air alongside some syndicated repeats and some annual year TV show or movie themed marathons other than having to fulfil a lifelong content agreement with The 700 Club after they ran out all of their own scripted programming earlier this year. 

Not even While You Were Breeding would count when they weren’t there on any of their recent schedules when Freeform decided not to put them on the air one year ago despite wrapping up production. They said that they no longer fit network programming strategy for comedy or other original scripted slate at any kind but then the issue were more like Freeform being on its last legs as a network. 

We still haven’t heard back or what will happen with Freeform’s two in-development projects though like horror drama Night’s Edge and a High School teen drama Rush. I guess they might be Hulu or FX/FXX projects after all should Freeform be the next to go from now.

This is something to keep an eye on over the next coming months or sometime in 2025 with more and more paying TV subscribers tuning in from their devices like Netflix, Disney + & Max.

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Looking back at the debut of Doctor Odyssey on ABC starring Joshua Jackson, Phillipa Soo, Sean Teale & Don Johnson on a cruise ship

by Sports Benches

Following High Potential last week, Dr. Odyssey had their turn on the biggest stage as the next newest ABC drama to arrive earlier today. The next future ABC dramas will have to wait until sometime next year or in 12 months time depending on other series renewals since Will Trent & The Rookie will take over mid-season.

Now it’s been quite a long introduction from the start, but at least there was a bit of fun like that breakdancing scene & Joshua Jackson’s Max love interest with Phillipa Soo’s Avery right in between rescuing a bunch of patients around this cruise ship. Speaking of that breakdancing scene, didn’t know Rachel Dratch – who portrayed Rachel Gunn aka Raygun (Aussie Olympic breakdancer who competed in last month’s Paris 2024) on Jimmy Fallon’s late night talk show last month – was actually there as one of the guest stars in this pilot episode. 

But then she played in a totally different scene though as the wife of that patient whose husband got hit in the neck after she came off the slide at the pool. Glad he’s okay though thanks to Max & his small medical team as sure they had one hell of blast & will of course be back with more fun surprises on deck next time.

Other than that, things will have to take time with a couple more episodes before Season 1 is done (probably until the end of this year) where the feedback of this episode plot here has been mixed of both good and bad compared to High Potential’s debut which received lots of good reviews.

Remember this is a straight-to-series order thanks to the creators of 9-1-1’s Ryan Murphy following 9-1-1’s successful move to ABC during its shortened prime-time TV season earlier this year when most of 2023 were held up for the most part due to the writers’ and actors’ strikes & ABC thought Dr. Odyssey would be the perfect replacement for the departed Station 19.

Yes, episode 2 called “Singles Week” is set to spice things up next Thursday at 9pm but will this be enough though to warrant a Season 2 renewal? We shall wait and see as this is bit like a reality show but full of scripted cast and storylines with no host.

Other than that, it’s great to see Joshua back on-screen whose character is great against all odds. So does Sean Teale who shares a mix of humor and in-action rivalry alongside Jackson’s character as the third wheel (Tristan Silva) to both Jackson and Soo’s IT on-air couple with Don Johnson (Captain Robert Massey) getting to steer this cruise ship even in the toughest of circumstances.

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Thoughts on Gina Rodriguez set for another ABC gig as a new regular for the upcoming Will Trent season off the back of her stints on Not Dead Yet and Lucky 13

by Sports Benches

Didn’t know Gina Rodriguez is getting yet another ABC gig off the back of her time with the Not Dead Yet sitcom as Nellie which was recently axed over the summer after two seasons. First of all post-NDY, she was the co-host of the brand new Lucky 13 game show alongside Shaquille O’Neal that began last month. 

Now she will be a regular in season 3 of the hit Will Trent drama ahead of its mid-season launch in around January-February that is also on the same network and the same 20th Television production.

She will be playing an Assistant District Attorney lawyer, who is new to Atlanta & may be forced to work with Will to solve gang crimes within the area, named Marion Alba. Interesting to see if he will stick with Angie (Erika Christensen) or go with Marion? We shall see in the new year as Gina will be there for some time in Atlanta just like Erika whom they are both both based in the West Coast over in LA.

Looks like she and Disney are going onto another level now and good for her getting more screen time on ABC both as actress and TV show host. Yeah, life won’t be the same for NDY when they had a great following as it would be great if this would’ve been kept elsewhere even on Hulu. Unfortunately, continuous poor ratings is not something ABC wanted to keep at the end of the day & therefore, they decided to end NDY after season 2.

But life with Gina goes on ABC with more Lucky 13 where they’ll have back-to-back episodes next week.

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ABC Network News: Thoughts on Tim Allen’s Shifting Gears set for a series order in early 2025 while Ty Burrell’s Forgive & Forget does not as his project won’t be moving forward

by Sports Benches

So there we have it, ABC’s mid-season comedy line-up is all set with three rather than four shows going into early 2025. 

Abbott Elementary continues yet another full season (Currently on Season 4) at the halfway mark while The Conners’ 7th and final season begins at the same time with six episodes to go, and now Tim Allen’s Shifting Gears joins the party as the next new sitcom for ABC since the recently axed Not Dead Yet back in early 2023. In case you missed it, its about Tim’s persona Matt going through a personal restoration of his own on top of his successful restoration car business when his teenage daughter moves in alongside her teenage kids following her divorce on what is going to be a long ride together from here.

That means, Ty Burrell’s Shifting Gears pilot unfortunately didn’t make it into the network’s plans – so no series order from them. Thought they would be up there after a year of in-development alongside someone who is well known for Modern Family before being given a pilot order a few months ago. 

But then things began to go downhill I’m afraid when it comes to the pilot presentation after management got the chance to watch this for an assessment. 

Although some of the bits and pieces were not bad including some crucial tweaks, such as the re-cast of Hank’s son in a bid to appease management. But again, the plot when being added on a video tape copy just couldn’t quite translate what the network wants to offer to their audience for TV. 

It would’ve been great if a sitcom like this be on any one of the TV networks out there to tackle dementia in a positive way had this gone into a series for mid-season.

At the end of the day, it’s ABC’s decision – who doesn’t sound confident on showing a sitcom that would potentially upset some of the audience – about someone having dementia & wanting to make memories while he can that affects the elderly. 

Especially when Forgive and Forget was filmed in front of a studio audience which is something the network wants to do to cut costs going forward. Probably another reason why Burrell’s project didn’t do well when his Modern Family success was via single-camera. Maybe ABC would’ve gave them another chance there instead in a different format, but then they’re less reliant on single-camera comedies & more into drama and reality/unscripted as said with their $$$.

To those who had the chance to watch the pilot, glad you saw it whereas the TV audience may not be able to ever since it’s going to be archived in a warehouse vault. But you never know what’s going to happen since these failed pilot lifelines being picked up by other networks are very rare as 20th Television is not forgiving and forgetting this one just yet.

And on Shifting Gears, we all know having this star power cast alongside a killer script/plot for Tim Allen’s next TV gig was easy enough for ABC to bring them in following their pilot presentation last month. Sure, it’s almost like a straight-to-series as always where their selection process is based on quality than quantity – see High Potential as a reference from early last year based on the hit French police dramedy, while they also had some off-set changes lately likewise with Burrell’s latest pilot. 

But this is a project that’s still highly well regarded just to make sure all systems can go for the network to begin foster a good relationship with the viewers via Allen once again like it was in the past when you look back at Home Improvement and later Last Man Standing.

What will look like as said with their 2025 mid-season schedule, mainly on Wednesdays, is maybe they’ll start with 60-90 mins on reality from 8pm followed by 90 mins of comedy and maybe another half-hour from elsewhere.

That’s the plan going forward as keep an eye out on Shifting Gears over the next few months such as the key art, logo, pictures and the first look promo before they will finally make it on the air early next year. For now, congratulations to Allen with the call-up once again as we look forward to see him return to the Disney family on ABC & 20th Television soon enough.

Note: The Shifting Gears logo above was maybe via a pilot presentation screenshot on IMDB as this may not be the official one being implemented by ABC but we’ll see.

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Thoughts on 2023 ABC legal drama pilot Judgement ft. Sarah Shahi finally showed its concept art for its opening titles on IMDB

by Sports Benches

While both current ABC comedy pilots may have finished filming their respective pilot presentations in front of a studio audience over the last week or two, there’s some key concept art for the opening sequence/intro finally being shown into the world of IMDB a day or two ago for one of ABC’s failed drama pilots from early last year called Judgement. It was a legal drama being made by Joey Falco who ran the reboot of Charmed from 2018 with actress Sarah Shahi as the main cast leader of this project in the form of her character Mia Bahari. You can tell by the title sequence of Sarah wondering with her eyes wide open on top of backdrops through the town of Washington DC (fictional setting there as the pilot was filmed in Atlanta, Georgia) as well as a series of wording such as “In the Supreme Court of the United States” & “United States Court of America” before you can finally see such a killer logo towards the end there in the wording called Judgement. That’s all to tell by its cover as the full pilot show access is only limited to cast members and behind the scenes staff involved unfortunately, not even going to a certain studio building would help to watch this pilot in-person either unless you’re really lucky. It’s only appropriate when showing off a piece of work like a part of your resume/CV as if you continue to seek your next opportunity.

It would’ve been a great promo for the public to see as if Judgement did make it into a series order but then the writers and later actors’ strikes have delayed pretty much everything for most of last year from April to October-November. Even if there wasn’t any revolt from people working behind the scenes in the scripted TV business, Judgement wouldn’t be given an advantage anyway when trying to get ahead of others like The Good Lawyer (also eventually being overlooked because the Strikes held them up for far too long). Yes, I understand about the split timelines part but then it’s 100% just about Mia whose professional reputation was on the line after being nominated for a seat in the Supreme Court off the back of her poor personal and love life other than what she did 15 years ago (was last year in fictional terms to its present day 2038).

So having an excellent line-up of cast members featuring team leader Shahi wasn’t bad alongside the key production art where the ABC management gave them some good grades which was largely well received, it’s just the plot when applying it in a pilot presentation from a year-long development script and its planned storyboards was something they didn’t like and therefore, Judgement didn’t make it at the end of the day. Although Judgement was given the chance to being given a lifeline by other networks following its original rejection by ABC but then these lifelines very rarely succeed unlike this one here. It’s not easy to make TV by first writing your story idea via a script, work with them for a year to make changes in the hope of making this script suitable for TV if you’re lucky, then assemble a cast and a location to film for a certain period of time hoping for the best by sending a copy back upstairs before you can finally go all in for the big screen if accepted – that’s life for y’all.

The good news is that the so-called “Pilot Season” most likely a thing of the past where it’s a bit like a knockout contest during February-March ahead of its final selections for the networks to showcase its annual May upfronts but it seems filming pilots where some go and some being eliminated and then archived in a vault or even all go and all not go isn’t changing anytime soon for now except FOX who nearly relies on straight-to-series orders off development scripts. I guess networks would want to double check everything first depending on axed shows and how these pilots would best fit their audience if they do make it as this kind of method have worked best for them across Fall and Mid-Season cycles in recent years.

Other than that, you never know when you will be able to watch an episode of Judgement one day if you’re lucky but 99.9% impossible. Judgement was produced by 20th Television alongside its Disney subsidiary studio ABC Signature and The Detective Agency as you can see it for yourself online at anytime on the pilot’s IMDB page here. And if you’re a huge fan of watching past pilots that never made into TV, I recommend you follow The Media Garage on both YouTube and Patreon. The same goes with JQ’s YouTube Channel here where they had tons of closing credit clips from various unaired TV pilots.

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Update on ABC Network’s two sitcom pilots of 2024 with a good chance of having both Shifting Gears & Forgive and Forget on the air for mid-season in January/February 2025

by Sports Benches

So two of the ABC half-hour comedy pilots of 2024 is now up to the pilot filming stage recently with Shifting Gears already had their presentation over the past week which will be seen by management while Forgive and Forget has just begun doing it on their own before following the same process. As we all know, Shifting Gears is all about a father (Tim Allen) who run a successful classic car restoration business but needs time to try and re-connect with his long lost daughter who just moved into his house alongside her teenage kids. Forgive and Forget, on the other hand, has something to do with Hank (Ty Burrell) wanting to re-connect these memories with his son Ben while he can after he was unexpectedly diagnosed with dementia.

Yes, the decisions is still not yet been finalised but they’re getting there with first-look trailers and official photos expected to come out in 1-2 months ahead of an expected airdate going into the mid-season cycle in either January or February 2025. That’s where ABC will be able to bring it home with their Wednesday sitcom line-up where another top season of Abbott Elementary goes on as well as the last six episodes of Season 7 in The Conners before their end of era and maybe 1-2 new sitcoms coming in with both Shifting Gears and Forgive and Forget – should the executives be happy to give the green light.

According to today’s update from Deadline by Nellie Andreeva, it looks like both new sitcoms will certainly be going ahead into a series order this time around. Here are the reasons why:

  • Both sitcoms are in a multi-camera format that is cheaper for the network to produce as part of their plans going forward;
  • Both sitcoms have star names in their respective pilots such as Tim Allen (Home Improvement, Last Man Standing, Toy Story and The Santa Clause) and Kat Dennings (2 Broke Girls) for Shifting Gears as well as Ty Burrell (Modern Family) in Forgive and Forget;
  • Both sitcoms’ plots/scripts for the next prime-time cycle went well that is so fitting for ABC to roll both of them out going into the new year in place of Home Economics and Not Dead Yet whose shows have already been axed.

Yes, having both sitcoms going forward almost feels like a straight-to-series order but at least the network is taking their time that bests fit their audience on the the big ABC on TV and Hulu across on-demand/online thanks to their year-round development process when the traditional “Pilot Season” may be a thing of the past. So no more quick decisions as if it’s an elimination contest where they typically pick a couple for pilot, send back for the executives upstairs for an assessment and then some will get the chance while others be thrown out and have their copy being archived in a top-secret vault storage.

I also had a look of Shifting Gears’ IMDB profile page today and they too now got their intro title card off the back of their recent pilot taping as this might not be the show’s official logo if they were given a series order but you never know. Watch this space as ABC is very certain to welcome two new sitcoms onboard (and both also under the subsidiary 20th Television umbrella) featuring two veterans of Tim Allen and Ty Burrell any minute from now over the next few weeks to months.

UPDATE 29/6/24: I also just saw the logo now of Forgive and Forget via Diana Maria Riva’s instagram page from a few days ago who plays one of the characters there (Hank’s ex-wife and shares an adult son together with Ben) on the other ABC comedy pilot. Likewise with Shifting Gears, they both come in a multi-camera format that has a studio audience/laughing track in it as part of the network’s plans to make these scripted sitcoms more affordable going forward. With that being said and as long as the pilot presentation goes well based on the script plot and its acting performance, this one will most certainly join Shifting Gears as one of ABC’s two brand new comedy shows during the mid-season mark in around January/February 2025.

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