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Dr. Odyssey

Entertainment

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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Entertainment

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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Entertainment

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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Entertainment

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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Entertainment

Thoughts on the ABC teaming up 9-1-1’s Ryan Murphy again in a brand new straight-to-series medical drama Dr. Odyssey with Joshua Jackson onboard for late 2024

by Sports Benches

ABC has just made a big call today and it’s going to be a brand new straight-to-series drama show being led by 9-1-1’s Ryan Murphy that will begin later this year alongside High Potential called Dr. Odyssey. If they need a new medical drama to fill in for the soon-to-be-finished The Good Doctor, it’s gotta be at the right place at the right time in none other than this show where 9-1-1 meets The Love Boat on a cruise ship. More details will come at a later date including filming dates with Joshua Jackson playing the main character (definitely Dr. Odyssey who relies on charms to get what he wants) and will also do a bit of behind the scenes work as an executive producer with Murphy under the Disney owned 20th Television studios umbrella.

Great to see 9-1-1 finding its strong ground at ABC after Season 7 began last Thursday, having been with FOX over the first couple of seasons and ABC going for a new medical show with someone (Murphy) who can craft all about medical/first responders stories well is simply excellent timing after a few unsuccessful medical pilots over the past few years such as Triage and The Hurt Unit. I can see this replacing the also soon-to-be-outgoing Station 19 fire drama soon enough and have it sandwiched between 9-1-1 and Grey’s Anatomy on Thursday nights or like for like in place of the Good Doctor on Tuesdays.

Let’s hope since there has been another restructure within the network executives upstairs over the past year, I’m sure they won’t make another reverse cancellation of these straight-to-series orders like it has been in the past & instead give these new ones like Dr. Odyssey a go. Now with two upcoming series order dramas & two new comedy pilots being lined up for Fall in September/October, we have yet to see any involvement from ABC Signature other than the guaranteed High Potential show regarding the choice of these next pilot orders (comedy and/or drama) with the main network but it will come sooner rather than later. For now, congratulations to Ryan Murphy and Joshua Jackson with the new medical drama show Dr. Odyssey.

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