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ABC Signature

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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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Entertainment

Grey’s Anatomy Season 21, Episode 1 “If Walls Could Talk”

by Admin

Grey’s Anatomy has returned with its 21st season. The longest medical drama in history just breaks ground on another round of medical crisis laced with emotional ruminations, hospital politics, and interpersonal drama. 

The premiere episode is directed by longtime guest player Debbie Allen. We pick up where the last season left off. Our anchor characters, Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and Bailey (Chandra Wilson), are out of their jobs at Grey Sloan Memorial after being sacked by Catherine Fox (Debbie Allen) – Mer over her illegal research, Bailey after coming to her intern’s defense. 

With such massive changes in the hospital, the doctors must keep going. The premiere episode sees the usual retinue of dramatic patients: protester falling off the sky into the windshield of a car driven by a minor, an injured radical activist crawling through the vent to evade police. It’s just another day at Grey Sloan Memorial. 

No longer the chief at Grey Sloan, Bailey tries to play it cool and busy herself at her clinic, but she cannot help it when her former residents come calling for aid. Meanwhile, Mer is in legal trouble with Catherine for her unauthorized Alzheimer’s research. Jackson Avery (returning fan favorite Jesse Williams) comes back to mediate the situation, but by now we already know these ladies ain’t gonna make it easy. 

Things take a surprising turn when Meredith finds Catherine collapsed at her office. It turns out that she has a spinal tumor and warns Mer against telling Jackson and Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr).

Soapy drama is always at the center of Grey’s Anatomy. And it continues to deliver exactly that for its loyal audiences. The novelty has worn off a long time ago (probably around the time they got Lexie Grey killed while trapped under an airplane), but the show consistently knows what audiences want from it. As usual, the hot blooded young interns serve up the relationship drama. This season, we have Mika Yasuda (Midori Francis) and Jules Millin (Adelaide Kane)’s budding romance, while Simone Griffith (Alexis Floyd) faces uncertainty as Lucas Adams (Niko Terho) must make the choice between leaving or staying to repeat his first year. These storylines do not have quite the same bite as the heydays of MerDer or the Alex-Izzie-George love triangle, but they remain on brand: push and pull chemistry, denial, misdirection, sexual tension. 

At this point, Grey’s has an established playbook that people will latch on to for as long as possible. The banters remain heated, the music remains stirring, the scenario as loopy but heartwarmingly wrapped as always. It does feel same old, same old, but Grey’s Anatomy is an establishment now – people tune in out of habit. Those yearning for some spice might no longer be satiated, but as long as the formula sticks, it’s a comfort food that people keep coming back to.  

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Entertainment

US’s version of the original hit Haut Potentiel Intellectuel French drama High Potential finally made it to ABC & Hulu last night with more episdoes to come on Tuesday nights

by Sports Benches

The US version of the original French hit crime-comedy drama Haut Potentiel Intellectuel has finally made it on the big ABC last night called High Potential when the series was first ordered 18 months ago and then the writers’ and actors’ strikes have put them on hold until the start of this 2024/25 TV season. But glad to hear the feedback turned out to be really good by their audience with little to no negativity so far across social media that should really translate into their season’s ratings success right from the word go ahead of episode 2 next Tuesday straight after Dancing With the Stars at 10pm ET/PT.

High Potential is led by Kaitlin Olson as Morgan Gillory alongside Daniel Sunjata as Adam Karadec (good to see US’s HPI put his first name on it rather than being just known as Karadec) including Javicia Leslie (Daphne), Judy Reyes (Selena) as well as Garret Dillahunt (Melon) & Taran Killam (Ludo Radovic) – such a strong cast to pull off likewise with the French show.

Some of the setting we saw there for the pilot episode does look like the one we first saw on social media from 18 months ago when ABC was putting them in pilot mode against several other dramas like Judgement, The Hurt Unit & even a Good Doctor spin-off called The Good Lawyer.

Although the pilot filming location was in Vancouver, Canada at the time before US’s HPI relocated its set to LA’s Fox Studios earlier this year since they’re allowed to film more episodes that covers season one (think it’s 10 episodes for fall). 

However, what we do really know is that US needs someone who can be like Morgan the mom of three & an unconventional crime solver from sweeping floors — and yet High Potential didn’t disappoint anyone so far along the way as we shall see how this ends up between now and the end of this year. 

We can also think HPI (first half season) and The Rookie (second half season) are going to be a great match to pass over the baton or even air alongside each other at some point that can power up some crime-solving fun on Tuesday nights if High Potential gets renewed for season 2 & The Rookie gets to stay on for a possible 8th season ahead of the 2025/26 season.

We can even see some comparisons there when it comes to pitting US’s HPI v The Mentalist (CBS) that ran from 2008-15, one of ABC’s former shows in Castle from 2009-16, Sherlock Holmes’s inspired Elementary (CBS) between 2012-19 & don’t forget Bones (FOX) too from 2005-17. All of those shows had great success that ran for a few great years before they ended things at the right time and no doubt High Potential can follow this path without any bad reason at all following their debut on-air pilot episode.

Congrats to the behind the scenes crew like Drew Goddard & its creators on the original HPI show on making this happen that wowed ABC management while it’s great seeing some actors/actresses back on TV after all this time when a few others from other failed pilots that didn’t make it had to move on as you never know what could happen in the TV business. If you want to give US’s HPI a shot then why not head over to Hulu & all you need is a subscription to start watching at any time. Sure the same will apply with Disney + (can’t find a release date there just yet) for those outside the US/Canada.

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Thoughts on Australian and New Zealand Disney + subscribers now able to watch same-day Grey’s Anatomy episodes ahead of the new Season 21 starting later this month

by Sports Benches

It’s been a long time coming for Grey’s Anatomy fans in Australia when the series was first aired on Seven Network for a number of years back in around 2006-2007 with updated episodes usually several months after the US. Although there wasn’t much hype though over the last decade before they eventually no longer hold any rights of the ABC (USA) flagship prime-time drama as of early 2021. Fortunately, Disney + has picked up the pieces from here where episodes were being a few weeks old in recent seasons and now they will get same-day episodes access as the original US airing including their New Zealand subscribers ahead of Season 21 – which will begin on Thursday 26th September/Friday 27th September here.

Don’t know what time Disney + will drop off these same day Grey’s episode each Friday from this upcoming season (definitely not at the same time as the ABC airing on TV which would be 10pm either side of the US/12pm either side here/2pm either side of NZ), but it’s likely to be around between late afternoon to early evening when the next day on-demand new episodes end up on Hulu as per usual with other ABC scripted prime-time shows.

Sure, times flies so fast with Grey’s over nearly two decades considering the number of high-profile actor/actresses have came here and gone like Patrick Dempsey, Sandra Oh & Katherine Heigl. But it’s still a brilliant and iconic long-running show to watch with Ellen Pompeo still around mainly in a executive producer role alongside some occasional acting as Meredith including Chandra Wilson as Dr. Miranda Bailey and several others like Camilla Luddington (Dr. Jo Wilson), James Pickens Jr. (Richard), Kevin McKidd (Owen) & many more.

So glad to hear that Grey’s Australian fans will be able to catch up the latest from Sloan Grey Memorial Hospital in Seattle & its characters alike without having to wait weeks or even find spoilers online when you can simply wait just hours after the original US airdate/airtime going forward & it’s all yours to watch from home or on the go via Disney +. And wouldn’t it be great if ABC Signature (their studio production) finally updated their on-air ident at the same time of the new Grey’s season premiere with the same ABC on-air logo that was last revamped back in 2021 but they still kept the same branding despite this as we shall find out with ABC’s long-awaited new drama show of High Potential (adapted from France) by mid next week.

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Entertainment

The original Haut Potentiel Intellectuel hit show from France has now arrived in the USA on-demand via Hulu ahead of High Potential’s premiere this September on ABC

by Sports Benches

USA’s version of the HPI TV show High Potential not only has a premiere date earlier this week of Tuesday September 17th at 10pm right after the new season of Dancing With The Stars with more to come weekly across several Tuesdays, but Kaitlin Olson fans (whose actress will lead the show as Morgan Gillery in the same way as Morgane Alvaro in France) and ABC viewers can watch the original HPI show from France right now on-demand via Hulu that was dropped off earlier today for those wondering what High Potential will look like when they will finally arrive on TV later this year due to last year’s labour strikes.

Yes, the original show from France would be probably up to their 4th season by now with the first three seasons being made available to US viewers at this stage as we don’t know how High Potential will turn out on the big ABC. Gotta credit to management though for discovering this show that was hit in France’s TF1 where they want HPI to give themselves a try in America and the ABC management loved it as soon as they saw the idea that followed up with a pilot copy under a star behind the scenes staff under Drew Goddard before it was approved as a series originally for the Fall cycle earlier last year.

In case you don’t know it which is similar to the US plot, it’s just Morgane while she was cleaning at a police station, she discovered she has a knack of solving crimes with an outstanding IQ of 160 – despite being divorced twice with three kids & has run-ins with police along the way when Morgane agreed to work with the station as a consultant. The characters there will have some similarities on what we will see for High Potential very soon – such as Morgane Alvaro (Morgan), Adam Karadec (Just Karadec, don’t know why), Daphne and Elliott (one of Morgan’s three kids but slightly renamed under Elliot with one T).

I just saw the original promo video of HPI from France’s TF1 and yes, I can see the exact same thing what Morgan does in both versions when they were both dancing and cleaning and then got into the habit of solving crimes once a unsolved crime folder was accidentally knocked down the ground that the Police couldn’t do while at dark all done by herself.

You can see how this goes for yourself on Hulu for those living in the USA here as well as Amazon Prime Video in Australia here as High Potential will be on ABC with Hulu on-demand the next day as well as on Disney + Internationally.

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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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Thoughts on ABC’s new look for 2024-25 prime-time season with first trailers finally out for High Potential & Doctor Odyssey

by Sports Benches

Yesterday, ABC has revealed its 2024-25 prime-time TV schedule with a couple of changes to its line-up where the long-awaited High Potential joins Dancing with the Stars on Tuesdays at 10pm while Dr. Odyssey is a straight swap for Station 19 on Thursday nights where they have sandwiched in between 9-1-1 (another of Ryan Murphy shows) and Grey’s Anatomy at 9pm.

We can see some of the original HPI elements being transferred onto the upcoming American version as her name is Morgan Gillery (French being Morgane Alvaro) who always has a lollipop, furry clothing, three kids, cleaning attire including gloves and most importantly, a good brain with an IQ of 160 we didn’t know she can solve crimes that the police couldn’t do.

On Dr. Odyssey or Doctor Odyssey, we can surely tell you that this straight-to-series order is coming through a cruise ship and isn’t turning back with more details happening on the inside at a later date. So rest assured we will see the first bunch of episodes being filmed with a plot, trailer and full line-up of cast and characters soon enough ahead of its premiere around September/October. Again, an easy pick considering Ryan Murphy’s 9-1-1 was a good move from FOX to ABC this year and the network wants to work with him more when Shonda Rhimes’s properties nowadays other than Grey’s is now on Netflix.

For the Wednesday side, it seems Abbott Elementary will be the only sitcom out there at 9.30pm for now as The Conners’ final six episodes will be set at the mid-season mark with The Golden Bachelorette kicking things off for 90 minutes. Then they went with a limited-series documentary about a mother faking cancer which is based on a podcast called Scamanda.

And Sundays will all be about The Wonderful World of Disney rather than celebrity game shows following America’s Funniest Home Videos with some Mondays expecting to be The Bachelorette when the network isn’t airing Monday Night Football.

All we need to find out now in the coming months whether or not if Shifting Gears and Forgive & Forget will be joining both Abbott and The Conners as chances have been increased to have two new sitcoms onboard, even though it’s still not yet guaranteed when this Wednesday line-up for Fall looks a bit different. That way, they can make 2nd half Wednesday line-up more structured for their sitcom slate while the remaining hour block would belong to a revival of Extreme Makeover.

Plus, it would be best if ABC Signature updates their logo to the current network one when the on-air branding was last changed back in August 2021 as well as its ident too at some stage. Surely, it will look good to kickstart HPI (yes, it’s called High Potential but still calling HPI when it was a original hit in France) alongside Grey’s Anatomy & The Rookie.

Speaking of The Rookie, yes, they might be left with the main show now that The Rookie: Feds was axed after just one year but they still have plenty to offer and starting off in the 2nd half would put this show back on the map after celebrating its 100th episode recently. So understand that this show needs a bit of a rethink in order to get back to basics rather than splitting into two different timeslots back in 2022-23 – like Sunday at 10pm during the Fall & Tuesday 8pm during the winter. Don’t know where they will end up going into the new year but yeah, better to have a consistent timeslot on a certain day for this.

Will Trent also staying where they are, who might not be ready to get a full season ride at this stage when they were also a huge hit right from the very start. But then they began during the mid-season year after year and they don’t wanna change that isn’t broken that might see them fall on the wrong path going into Season 3. Again, we understand that tactic as well.

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Motorsport

Thoughts on Daniel Ricciardo’s Hulu Formula One sitcom project getting a pilot order earlier this week now titled Downforce

by Sports Benches

Also this week, ABC Signature has one of their new sitcom pilots being approved to the pilot stage by the Hulu streaming service and it’s Formula 1 related called Downforce with current RB Visa CashApp driver Daniel Ricciardo involved as one of the executive producers alongside Alec Berg, Adam Cortnee, Lionsgate and Temple Hill Entertainment. It will be lead by a female who was suddenly required to oversee the family-run racing team as she will need to make some tough choices whether if she will continue running it or step aside that would impact the future of the organisation and her family’s legacy.

So a it’s bit like Claire Williams taking over her famous dad’s Formula 1 team during the last decade when he needed to take a back seat before it was sold to Doriton Capital back in 2020, which marked a new era for Williams and then Sir Frank sadly passed away a year later. Maybe this might be based on a true story since Formula 1 has grown a lot in America off the back of the seasoned Netflix documentary Drive to Survive over the last 5-6 years. The cast and its format (thinking it’s going to be single-camera) remains to be seen at this stage, having first developed the show when Ricciardo was involved with Hulu a year ago. Yes, he was out of a drive at the time as even though his results this year might not be good any longer after he unexpectedly replaced Nyck De Vries nearly a year ago at Red Bull’s sister team (then Alpha Tauri), he will still have a job within the sport where he’s always been popular with the fans when he raced for Red Bull, Renault and McLaren for many years.

Now let’s see if Downforce can be put into series which isn’t guaranteed but should things go well later this year, we the original airing would be on Hulu sometime in 2025 with the International distribution as per ABC Signature being available via Disney +. Yes, this project also would’ve been perfect for ABC on TV who also airs selected Formula 1 races during the year thanks to Disney property ESPN but they want more new multi-camera sitcoms going forward that isn’t expensive. So best to build a following on Hulu rather than seeing things being unexpectedly axed after a few episodes if they’re really that lucky.

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Thoughts on the ABC Network this week seeing new cast members onboard on respective new shows as well as season renewal verdicts on the comedy side

by Sports Benches

It’s been a while since Easter but we have heard quite a lot over the last week from ABC regarding its shortlists of new shows hoping to impress management ahead of the Fall season later this year other than Dr. Odyssey, which went straight into series.

Kat Dennings joins Tim Allen who will play his character’s daughter Riley on Shifting Gears

She might not have been acting that much other than Dollface over the last couple of years, but the 2 Broke Girls star is ready to make her way back into prime-time TV now as she will be playing the daughter of Tim Allen’s character Matt on Shifting Gears. We know so far before her announcement that Matt, a successful car restoration owner, is set for a restoration of his own after his daughter was forced to move into his home alongside her teenage kids. Now her character’s name is Riley whom she had a strained relationship with her dad growing up before she married her boyfriend she hated while having two kids along the way, which turned out to be a divorce & now she moves back in hoping to make it work with her dad this time.

This is something we have yet to see when it comes to the Allen-Dennings working chemistry but they have got great experience performing in front of a studio audience before as is the setting Shifting Gears will go with where ABC doesn’t have a recent history of multi-camera sitcoms other than tons of single-camera stuff since The Conners back in 2018.

Thoughts on The Conners and Not Dead Yet renewal bubble

While most of the current drama shows have recently been given the renewal to stay on for next season other than Station 19 & The Good Doctor, we are still waiting whether two of the current comedy shows The Conners and Not Dead Yet will also be joining Abbott Elementary for later this year or not. First of all, The Conners has been great to ABC for a few years having recovered well from the Roseanne Barr controversy as their renewal would rest on 1-2 new multi-camera pilots. Meanwhile, Not Dead Yet is right now 50/50 since the ratings aren’t there but has a great following though with Gina Rodriguez (Nell) as they could come back for Season 3 depending on the network’s line-up on Wednesday nights that would best fit their viewers.

It would be great if they can give The Conners’ creator Sara Gilbert one last season to perfect a brilliant ending to the show in a way that would put great respect to the network as I guess this show will stay on a bit longer. We saw CBS axe The Talk last week, a daytime talk show she was involved with from the beginning for the majority, as they will have a shortened 15th season to wrap things up at the end of this year before a new African-American soap comes in by January called The Gates.

With that being said, The Conners will stay, Shifting Gears would be a definite yes & Forgive & Forget is dependent on Not Dead Yet’s fate as well as potentially other new comedy pilots coming into play soon enough but ABC’s further investment into multi-camera sitcoms would give them a slight advantage despite Burrell’s success with single camera stuff like Modern Family. And more viewers would drop out even more before it’s too late if Not Dead Yet stays on for a third season where there’s worse shows than this who didn’t rate well at the start and had to be abruptly be cut away before it even finished.

Phillipa Soo and Don Johnson join Joshua Jackson for ABC’s new drama show Dr. Odyssey

And lastly, we have two new additions for ABC’s new drama show Dr. Odyssey which is going to be a medical serial but this time it will be set on a cruise ship. So far it’s a straight into series order with Joshua Jackson playing the lead character & will also be executive producing who relies on charms to make things work. Now Don Johnson and Phillipa Soo has came onboard as additional leading cast members; Again, we don’t know which characters they will be playing as Dr. Odyssey is still developing before shooting its first scenes later this year. However, I guess Soo will be lead woman/the doctor’s lover while Johnson will be the veteran working with the doctor. Speaking of Soo, she’s been with ABC before when Dangerous Liaisons didn’t make it as a pilot ten years ago while she was on Hulu’s Dopesick for a few episodes back in 2021 under 20th Television studios. Don’t forget her husband Stephen Pasquale also appeared on ABC’s cancelled straight series pilot Avalon two years ago as the leading male cop alongside Neve Campbell’s Nic Searcy – also under 20th Television. It looks like the new show’s social media accounts is beginning to pop up now with the network’s text logo and its covers on it saying “new series coming soon on ABC and Hulu”; The new show and ABC are even following each other on Instagram which is good news despite no welcome post announcement. The same goes with High Potential whose new drama show will also arrive later this year despite staying idle for so long due to last year’s strikes,. Now here’s hoping for ABC to learn their lessons by not changing their minds on cancelling a straight series order ever again like it was over the last few years such as Avalon (2022), two untitled Alec Baldwin comedy projects (2018 and 2021) & even While You Were Breeding (September 2023) via Freeform.

What’s next before we finish April and enter May?

I guess ABC Signature is currently seeing their current broadcast TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Station 19, The Rookie and The Good Doctor reaching its finish line soon for this shortened prime-time season thanks to the writer’s and actors’ strikes for most of last year, which is probably the reason why they haven’t come up with the next season pilots just yet. But I guess we will at least see one new drama and comedy pilot coming up from their end and hopefully, they get a new logo and outro since ABC updated their on-air ident for a few years now. And if any new shows are to join past the pilot stage, I expect to see 1-2 new comedy pilots depending on Not Dead Yet as well as at least one new drama show replacing The Good Doctor (High Potential doesn’t count since it’s from last year and Dr. Odyssey would fit in between 9-1-1 & Grey’s on Thursday nights).

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Thoughts on ABC Network continuing to order scripted TV pilots while CBS & FOX are leaning on new shows straight off the bat

by Sports Benches

The talk of having pilots coming out for the next US TV season in late 2024-early 2025 has emerged recently with CBS choosing not to make any orders & will select future shows via the long-term development process just like Fox whose system nowadays relies on the straight-to-series order process. But ABC will keep on ordering pilots both for the drama and comedy side as they will continue to choose quality over quantity (like 1-2 new shows for drama & comedy) once they’ve reviewed them following the pilot stage.

No surprise there considering they will have one new show that was postponed from last year in High Potential (a crime comedy drama based from France) whereas most of this Fall will focus on the storylines from most returning dramas and comedies that was interrupted during the first half of this 2023-24 prime-time TV season due to the Hollywood strikes including a few more reality/unscripted content. With that being said, a couple of new shows after High Potential would be introduced in January-February of 2025.

We don’t know which shows will be up in contention as time will tell later on but they did have a couple of comedy pilots being lined up after they decided not to order any new sitcoms into series last year when Keeping It Together & Public Defenders failed to meet the requirements they were hoping for being set by Abbott Elementary. 

So all in all, ABC won’t follow Fox & even CBS for the foreseeable future by having all of their future shows being available to the public when most unsuccessful pilots are locked up somewhere in a vault & will most likely never been seen again. I wish they can have all of their yearly unsuccessful pilots being put out only online though like they did with Bad Management (an unsuccessful half-hour sitcom pilot) back in late 2013 but don’t think they will do that again I’m afraid.

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