Well, if you had tried to get us to guess the ABC 2024-25 fall season announcement, we couldn’t have predicted much of it.
There are new shows sprinkled throughout, but ABC is going almost full reality, which is a choice.
Let’s see what we’ve got to work with here.
Two new shows will interest TV Fanatics: High Potential, starring Kaitlin Olson, which was delayed due to the strikes, and Doctor Odyssey, starring Joshua Jackson as a cruise ship doctor.
High Potential gets a 10/9c slot on Tuesdays after Dancing with the Stars.
Despite the relationship disaster of The Golden Bachelor, ABC is dedicating an hour and a half weekly to The Golden Bachelorette while snuggling award-winning comedy Abbott Elementary between that and a docuseries called Scamanda.
Thursdays find Doctor Odyssey after 9-1-1 and before Grey’s Anatomy.
And TV Fanatic favorites The Rookie and Will Trent? Saved for midseason.
According to Deadline, Disney TV Group President Craig Erwich says that’s a vote of confidence in the two series, which they hope to run interrupted in midseason.
Call us skeptical that any broadcast network will run any show uninterrupted for the length of its run, whether 22 or 13 episodes or, as may be the case here, 18 episodes.
The Connors, too, will air midseason, along with The Bachelor, Celebrity Jeopardy!, Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, and What Would You Do, plush Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. All of which sounds as dramatically scintillating as watching paint dry.
Is this the fall ABC schedule we’d like to see?
Nope, but it’s the one we get.
ABC Fall 2024 Season Schedule
(New programs in UPPER CASE; all times ET/PT)
MONDAY
8 PM — Monday Night Football on select Mondays this fall /TBA programming
TUESDAY
8 PM — Dancing with the Stars
10 PM — HIGH POTENTIAL
WEDNESDAY
8 PM — THE GOLDEN BACHELORETTE
9:30 PM — Abbott Elementary
10 PM — SCAMANDA
THURSDAY
8 PM — 9-1-1
9 PM — DOCTOR ODYSSEY
10 PM — Grey’s Anatomy
FRIDAY
8 PM — Shark Tank
9 PM — 20/20 (two hours)
SATURDAY
7:30 PM — College Football
SUNDAY
7 PM — America’s Funniest Home Videos
8 PM — The Wonderful World of Disney
Well, what do you think? Are you as disappointed as we are in this schedule?
We may have more information on the new shows after ABC’s Upfronts presentation this afternoon.
Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She’s a member of the Critic’s Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.