SHILO: 8:00 Roseanne; 8:30 Man of the House; 9:00 Black-ish; 9:30 Speechless; 10:00 The Rookie
CRAIG: 8:00 Roseanne; 8:30 American Housewife; 9:00 Black-ish; 9:30 Splitting Up Together; 10:00 The Rookie
SHILO: Apart from Last Man Standing, it had been many moons since a multi-cam worked on ABC, which made the success of Roseanne that much sweeter for the Alphabet network. With their desire to attract a broader, more conservative audience, I think they’ll use the 13-episode second revival season of its lightning rod comedy on another multi-cam so as to build up that side of its comedy brand. Man of the House, which sounds like Last Man Standing but focused on a teenage boy, seems the likeliest of ABC’s multi-cam crop to fit with Roseanne. The 9:00 hour still will be incongruous, though, with weak-ish anchor Black-ish unlikely to move from its schedule perch in a syndication season. In lieu of another season of Splitting Up Together, which was recently downgraded at The Hollywood Reporter despite good retention and solid non-linear (possibly because of being unowned), I think ABC uses 9:30 on another season of Speechless. That show is co-produced by ABC and will be fully in-house upon completion of the Disney merger, so if ABC doesn’t expand their comedy reach (which I don’t have them doing), I think corporate politics, syndication profits, and good buzz tips the scales.
Even if ABC goes with Splitting Up Together here instead of Speechless, I do think they’ll use The Rookie at 10:00. It’s a lighter procedural, so it’s a good fit for a comedy bloc, and putting it on Tuesdays vs. Wednesdays keeps it from facing stronger procedurals on NBC and CBS.
CRAIG: The Rookie with Nathan Fillion of Castle fame seems like an easy sell which would make it right for the difficult ABC “Tuesday at 10” spot. For the 8:00 hour, though, I’m deviating and putting American Housewife. The American housewife of 1988 and the American housewife of 2018 might go together nicely.
