Having to predict ABC’s schedule this year might be our toughest ask yet. Not only does the network have a new president in former Freeform executive Karey Burke, this will be their first schedule following the Disney merger that saw the conglomerate acquire, among other things, 20th Century Fox TV Studios. ABC already does the most in terms of withholding renewal decisions until the last possible minute, especially notable this year with the volume of early renewals and cancellations we’ve seen. But combining that with the sure-to-be bold moves of an executive looking to make her mark on the network and the uncertainty when it comes to how ABC handles itself post-merger means that the usually less predictable network just got a whole lot murkier.
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SUNDAY
SHILO: 7:00 America’s Funniest Home Videos; 8:00 Dancing with the Stars; 10:00 Shark Tank
CRAIG: 7:00 America’s Funniest Home Videos; 8:00 The Rookie; 9:00 Stumptown; 10:00 The Good Doctor
SHILO: If Idol‘s third ABC season remains a primarily Sunday affair, I think ABC does what it did this season and uses unscripted here in the fall. While they have the likes of Ryan Reynolds game show Don’t and America’s Funniest Home Videos spinoff Videos After Dark on the bench, I think they’ll keep those to patch scheduling holes with and opt to move Dancing with the Stars to Sundays. ABC is in dire need for drama space and moving Dancing allows them to open up Mondays in that regard while giving Sunday higher ratings than the likes of Don’t or Videos After Dark. I know there are logistical questions that’ve kept Dancing from moving to Sundays in the past, but with their new president on board, I think ABC finds a way to figure those out.
As far as 10:00, they could put some low priority scripted here, but I think a move for Dancing with the Stars allows them to keep Shark Tank in the 10:00 hour all season, which is a move that’s good for both the affiliates and ABC’s scripted slate. The affiliates get a proven performer with primarily live viewership, while ABC’s scripted gets to duck a tough slot that is hard to crack in 2019.
CRAIG: I actually really like your suggestion of moving Dancing With The Stars on Sunday, but if I were scheduling ABC, I might do something a bit different. AFV would, of course, stay on at 7PM as it has for the better part of the last quarter century. At 8PM I’d relocate The Rookie. An easy, across-the-plate show like that one might do better earlier at night, much like God Friended Me has worked over at CBS in the same time slot. At 9PM I’d put a new entry – Stumptown, which I hope keeps the name of the graphic novel that it is based on instead of Bad Alibi which is floated around. Cobie Smulders is in it, and if it’s got a short run, it can vacate in time for American Idol at midseason. At 10PM I’d slot The Good Doctor — it’s been a while since ABC had a Sunday night medical show, though the last time it happened the series lasted 15+ seasons. Also, The Good Doctor can stay for when Idol returns.
