WEDNESDAY
CRAIG: 8:00 The Goldbergs; 8:30 Schooled; 9:00 Modern Family; 9:30 Bless This Mess; 10:00 Station 19
SHILO: 8:00 The Goldbergs; 8:30 Schooled; 9:00 Modern Family; 9:30 Happy Accident; 10:00 Wright
CRAIG: I love how well The Goldbergs and Schooled hour has gone; I don’t expect Schooled to last as long as its parent series has, but the flow has been perfect and I find this to possibly be the best hour of half-hours on television. So, I would definitely like to see more of this. The final season of Modern Family would stay where it is.
Instead of Modern Family leading to a new half-hour which rarely ever works, I’ve slotted Bless This Mess, which has premiered decently this midseason. Finally, at 10, I have something I’m not 100% sure about: Station 19. With One Chicago being on NBC and likely remaining on Wednesday nights, this might be stupid, but I don’t know what else to do, aside from maybe a surprise Whiskey Cavalier renewal.
SHILO: The first three comedies on Wednesdays should stay the same. Schooled wasn’t a knockout, but it did more than enough to be renewed and keep its slot. With Modern Family headed into its final season, I think it’s guaranteed to launch something new, possibly something viewed as the successor to the 9:00 throne. There are a number of ABC comedies in development that I could see here, but I decided on Happy Accident, the most Modern Family-ish of the comedies in development and something that features that includes Emmy nominees Matt Walsh and Vanessa Williams. It sounds like something that would skew similarly upscale to Modern Family and something that has a wider appeal beyond ABC’s core comedy audience.
For the 10:00 hour, I went with the untitled 50 Cent/Hank Steinberg legal drama (with the working title Wright), which sounds like it has enough soap to stand out against two procedurals, enough female appeal to hang onto the core ABC audience, and enough narrative structure to keep from going off the rails. There’s a family element, too, that’s very ABC and like Becoming Bow, it’s gotten buzz during the lead-up to upfronts.
