Finally this week, ABC has now able to finalise their weekly scripted programming schedule that will run between February and around the middle of 2024 following a long & painful six month hold up from the writers and actors strikes. As it stands during winter to spring on weekends, Saturdays is for sports and Sunday is full of non-scripted and reality tv stuff including its long-time return of What Would You Do? straight after two hours of American Idol at 10pm. Plus, Fridays will always be Shark Tank at 8 before ending the weekday week with two hours of true crime reporting of 20/20 between 9-11pm.
But some shows will have brand new time slots this time on a different day of the week. We will now see The Good Doctor on Tuesday nights at 10am beginning on the 20th of February after The Rookie (9pm) and Will Trent (8pm) as Mondays will all be reality and non-scripted starting in late January with the two-hour Bachelor show at 8pm as well as a limited 20/20 spin-off true crime series (name TBA). Then Wednesdays will always be the home of comedy with a plethora of half-hour sitcoms kicking off a few weeks beforehand (1st to 2nd week of February) such as new seasons of The Conners (1/7), Not Dead Yet (1/7) & Abbott Elementary (1/14) between 8-9.30pm. Although the new season episode of Abbott Elementary will go for an hour, it remains to be seen what the 9.30-10pm slot will be like at a later date – probably a repeat of Abbott unless ABC can find something else to fit in since Home Economics won’t be coming back after 3 seasons. We will also get to see an hour in all-new season of Judge Steve Harvey at 10pm as well. And there will one newcomer moving in after six season from a different network (FOX) called 9-1-1 on Thursdays, which focuses on Los Angeles’s first responders department. Meanwhile, the Grey’s Anatomy franchise has shuffled a bit where the flagship show remains at 9pm after 9-1-1 while spin-off firehouse drama Station 19 will now be at 10pm rather than 8pm. All of these action packed shows will be back on March 14th.
Post-Notes
Interesting take there considering The Good Doctor has followed Dancing With The Stars from being on Mondays for a long time to Tuesdays now. If The Good Lawyer came in which the strikes have saw them miss the cut, then it would’ve been a 10pm Tuesday night show that follows on a day after the main show. The Thursday line-up is fine while Mondays will be the new reality by sharing with Monday Night Football & I guess Wednesday is a little difficult for ABC in regards to the 9.30-10pm time slot. But I guess with The Conners approaching its end & depending on the Season 2 performance of Not Dead Yet, they might to bring one new comedy show going forward – having not taken any new ones from their recent pilot cycle earlier this year. I do assume though by Fall next year, High Intellectual Potential (adopted from France) will be a perfect fit at 10pm on Wednesdays replacing A Million Little Things since it’s a crime comedy show. And I’m sure another new drama or two will be up on Sunday nights during the months go by in 2024 for the next pilot cycle as scripted programming is here to stay but the main focus for ABC going forward is that they will go or chop & change after each year for quality than quantity.