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Entertainment

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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Entertainment

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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Entertainment

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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Entertainment

Thoughts on ABC looking further into multi-cam comedies with Sisters-In-Law next in line under development earlier today

by Sports Benches

Here’s another new ABC multi-camera comedy proposal they’ve just struck earlier today thanks to a deal with Ellen Kreamer & Sherry Bilsing Graham (who were both part of The New Adventures of Old Christine executive producing crew that ran for five seasons between 2006-10 on CBS) as well as its Disney subsidiary A & E Studios (even though they mainly focus on dramas & it’s their first deal for comedy by the way), which is currently in development called “Sisters-In-Law”.

The plot is about is two sister in laws who initially struggle to get along together, finally get along together but probably at the wrong time when a third sister in-law comes into play. Both Kreamer & Bilsing Graham will be attached as executive producers alongside A & E’s duo of Barry Jossen & Tana Nugent Jamison. Interesting as no surprise there from ABC considering their push into bringing more affordable half-hour comedies that makes sense in front of a studio audience rather than go with single-camera sitcoms like it was for most of the last decade. So far there’s no word whether Sisters In Law will get a pilot presentation, a straight-to-series order or even quietly not proceed at all like we’ve found out with “Pine Valley” the other day (although an All My Children revival isn’t dead after all rumoured to be a TV movie series by Lifetime). 

But fingers crossed to see where this “Sisters-In-Law” project will land within 6-12 months time as per usual year-long development formula that the network is relying on these days rather than being drawn into a yearly Pilot Season competition while we do know Tim Allen’s new sitcom Shifting Gears will definitely be up & running early next year during the mid-season.

And having seen ABC won the rights to this project following stiff competition from their network rivals like CBS & NBC, let’s hope they can treat this well if they do at least want “Sisters-In-Law” to go straight into air and not throw them under the bus like they did to Avalon two years ago (also a previous A & E Studios project involving Jossen and Nugent Jamison under an initial under a straight-to-series order but was later rejected unfortunately after management watched the pilot copy).

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