CRAIG: 8:00 The Middle; 8:30 Fresh Off the Boat; 9:00 black-ish; 9:30 The Real O’Neals; 10:00 Quantico
SHILO: 8:00 Fresh Off the Boat; 8:30 The Real O’Neals; 9:00 Designated Survivor; 10:00 Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD
CRAIG: A big problem Quantico had at the start of last season was that Blood & Oil bled and oiled so much that ABC audiences tuned out in the middle of the lineup. The show is clearly an ABC priority, so why not give it a great weekday slot where it could also boost the Tuesday night newscasts for affiliates?
It seems both of us were thinking ABC needs to add more comedy, and while you had an hour of Sunday given to the comedy gods, I’m sacrificing another hour for Tuesday. My lineup would move The Middle and black-ish to Tuesdays, so that the Wednesday line-up could breathe a bit more. Aside from The Middle, this 3-hour block would also give ABC one of the most diverse nights in all of television, and I’d imagine it would make the network a competitor again on Tuesday nights, unless the actual ABC schedulers have much better ideas.
When Quantico takes a break at midseason, perhaps John Ridley’s Presence could slot in.
SHILO: If ABC were to leave SHIELD on Tuesdays at 9:00, they would go another season without being able to make progress in rebuilding the night. It’s simply not strong enough to launch something by itself and since it clashes with just about everything in ABC’s drama development class, I don’t see that changing for this season. As such, they should do the right thing and move the show to 10:00 where it can exist on its own and plug a slot that’s been lethal for them in recent seasons. It would benefit more from a good lead-in than it would in trying to be a good lead-in, so since I can’t see it being deprioritized too much given Disney’s relationship with Marvel, I think ABC will slide it back an hour and try to fix the higher viewed 9:00 hour.
Realistically, ABC could use 9:00 for another hour of comedy and play up the fact that SHIELD is one of their family friendly dramas. However, I decided to go with Designated Survivor, a high-octane thriller about a Washington, D.C. tragedy that thrusts the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development into the Office of the Presidency; it’s a big concept with a proven TV star (Kiefer Sutherland), it’ll be the only drama like this in the hour, and it’s male enough to keep SHIELD from falling into the ratings blackhole that’s sucked in every drama they’ve recently had at 10:00. However, if Designated Survivor doesn’t end up here, be it for another comedy hour or something else entirely, I could see it on Sundays at 9:00 given its similarity to Quantico.
And yes, in my ABC schedule, I’m keeping The Real O’Neals. It has very good retention from one of ABC’s weaker comedy lead-ins and about maximized Fresh Off the Boat’s lead-in potential (e.g. if ABC thinks they can put something new behind Fresh and do better than O’Neals, they’re insane); it fits right into ABC’s comedy wheelhouse, both in terms of tone and theme; it’s wholly owned by ABC, which only black-ish can boast; and it’s an important show that not only adds to ABC’s diversity brand, it utilizes the television platform to do some good.
