ABC’s 2016-2017 Schedule: Thoughts & Predictions

While upfronts can be a way for networks that have great seasons to crow about the strides they’ve made, they can also be a time of respite for those who’ve been beaten down over the course of the television season. Upfronts provide a time for networks to reset, restrategize, and come out swinging with their best shot for next season; they might have to endure press about how low they are going into the next season, but it’s worth if it they can find shows that stick and improve enough to take off the negative focus. Focusing on both the negative and positive of each network are Craig Byrne and Shilo Adams, who are attempting to figure out what NBC, FOX, ABC, CBS, and The CW will be doing come next season. Neither has access to insider information, nor does either claim to be clairvoyant, so these are the ramblings of two dudes who read the television trades, pay attention to network development, and possess decent guessing skills. If a show you like isn’t mentioned, or something you like gets mentioned disparagingly, please don’t take it personally, as we’re just trying to figure these schedules out.

Third up to reveal their fall schedule will be ABC, which took some noticeable steps back this season. Even with Wednesday and Thursday remaining their strongest nights, individual shows from each night have taken sizable drops, while Castle languished in the demo for a majority of the season, Sunday swallowed up The Family and Blood & Oil, and Tuesdays at 10:00 remained the most problematic slot on the network’s schedule. But with a new president in Channing Dungey, ABC is looking toward a schedule with more procedurals, less bridge shows, and strength that extends to more than just Wednesday and Thursday. But what will ABC do in the fall to get started toward rebuilding their schedules? Just how much progress will they be able to make over the course of one season?

2016-2017 Fantasy Scheduling Articles: NBC | FOX | CBS | The CW

SUNDAY

CRAIG: 7:00 America’s Funniest Home Videos; 8:00 Once Upon a Time; 9:00 Time After Time; 10:00 Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD

SHILO: 7:00 America’s Funniest Home Videos; 8:00 The Goldbergs; 8:30 Dream Team; 9:00 Once Upon a Time; 10:00 Quantico

CRAIG: The first two hours of ABC’s Sunday night schedule have worked for a few years, so in my opinion, there’s no reason to rock the boat just yet. For the next two hours, though, I’m deviating a bit.

So, let me start explaining myself: I’m a huge time travel nerd and the Lois & Clark episodes with H.G. Wells were always my favorites, so it’s probably inescapable that I’d include Time After Time on the schedule. I can’t believe I’ve never seen the movie that inspired this TV series, but in any event, I would think that a show like this could and would be fluffy and appropriate enough to follow Once Upon A Time — something that Blood & Oil certainly couldn’t last season, though I was one of the three people who actually liked the show. It also would skew female in such a way that it wouldn’t be as affected by the Walking Dead monster that most other 9PM shows would be. Plus, it’d give ABC the excuse to advertise it as a “Once Upon A Time After Time night.”

For 10:00, I’m making it a solid night of known brands by slotting Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. I’m not the biggest fan of moving the series to 10, but I’m not sure what other options there might be considering the ratings drops the show has suffered. At midseason, S.H.I.E.L.D. could back away in favor of Marvel’s Most Wanted if ABC should pick it up. Aside from the Marvel branding I’m not sure why they’d do a spin-off right now, but I do love Adrianne Palicki’s Bobbi Morse (code name: Mockingbird) and I’d love to see her in her own show, even if Marvel’s Most Wanted is not a very good title at all and I kept hoping that cooler minds would prevail and call it “Mockingbird” already.

SHILO: By all accounts, ABC likes its comedy development this season, so combine that with the fact that comedy is doing better than drama on ABC right now and you get a comedy expansion. But that extra hour has to go somewhere and while I would be okay with the idea of a two-hour block on Tuesdays, I think it could take away a decent place to launch a drama, which they need right now. Therefore, I decided to shift comedy to Sundays in lieu of Scandal’s sudden absence from the fall schedule and having to launch another new show in a slot that’s not that friendly to anything scripted.

I went with The Goldbergs because it’s the most compatible show with America’s Funniest Home Videos and I think it’s strong enough to not only survive a move like this, but be able to launch something new. Whereas other ABC comedies tackle some serious issues (e.g. black-ish and Fresh Off the Boat with race, The Real O’Neals with sexuality and religion), The Goldbergs is a solid, classic-styled sitcom refracted through the lens of 80s pop culture, so it’s something a casual audience could dip into and something that wouldn’t turn away the Home Videos audience. Moving The Goldbergs would show that ABC is serious about fixing its schedule while allowing a new comedy to launch away from Empire and in between the network’s two strongest comedies. With The Goldbergs, I have soccer parent comedy Dream Team because its documentary format is something that has flourished on ABC before (e.g. Modern Family), the network has been high on the project for much of the pre-upfront period, and it’s a concept that’s relatable to a wide swath of ABC’s audience.

Plus, there’s no family comedy competition here in the fall, which could make such a move easier to deal with, and putting comedy in the hour could help smooth the transition to midseason, where ABC will probably air the second season of The Muppets that they inexplicably want.

Since The Goldbergs is taking over the 8:00 hour, I have Once Upon a Time shifting to 9:00 – what declines that would come from the move could be offset by the gains made earlier in the night, while this would keep one of ABC’s drama freshmen from having to face down some steep competition. And it would likely end up as the strongest lead-in Quantico has had, making the entire night viable for the first time in quite a while for ABC.