‘Abbott Elementary’ Gets ‘Golden Bachelorette’ Lead-In on ABC’s Fall Schedule
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ABC will once again have Abbott Elementary as a centerpiece of its Wednesday night in 2024-25 — but it will begin the season without any companion comedies.
The Emmy-winning series will move back a half-hour to 9:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, with The Golden Bachelorette (which will run 90 minutes each week, up from an hour for The Golden Bachelor last fall) as its lead-in. The rest of ABC’s comedy offerings for 2024-25 — including the final season of The Conners — will come in the second half of the season.
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“We continue to be very dedicated to comedy. I think you’ll see that really come through in midseason,” Disney Television Group president Craig Erwich told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview Tuesday, a few hours before Disney’s upfront presentation. “Because of the strikes [in 2023], there was a pause in some of our development plans. We’re now shooting two really high-profile comedy pilots with beloved television talent in Tim Allen [Shifting Gears] and Ty Burrell [Forgive and Forget]. And I think one of the bigger television events of the year will be the final season of The Conners. So I think between those pilots, Abbott, and The Conners, you’ll see us really kind of return to the comedy form that ABC is known for.”
ABC will also debut a pair of dramas in the fall: High Potential, a crime procedural starring Kaitlin Olson (which was held over from last year’s development cycle), and the Ryan Murphy-produced Doctor Odyssey, starring Joshua Jackson as the medical officer aboard a luxury cruise ship. High Potential will follow Dancing With the Stars on Tuesday nights, while Doctor Odyssey will fall between 911 (also from Murphy) and Grey’s Anatomy on Thursdays.
The latter series will enter its 22nd season in the fall, adding to its record as the longest-running primetime medical drama in American TV history. There’s no word yet on how much title star Ellen Pompeo will be involved in Grey’s next season; sources say those conversations are still happening.
ABC’s other new show for the fall is Scamanda, an ABC News-produced docuseries — based on a podcast of the same name — about a woman whose story of battling lymphoma was too good to be true. It will follow Abbott Elementary on Wednesday nights.
Dramas Will Trent and The Rookie are set for midseason, along with new seasons of unscripted shows The Bachelor, Celebrity Jeopardy!, Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and What Would You Do?, plus a rebooted Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Erwich told THR that holding the two dramas will allow them to have largely unbroken runs starting in early 2025.
“Both of those shows are firing on all cylinders, both in terms of ratings and the performance we see on Hulu,” Erwich said. “We’ll launch them in January, when we have huge promotional platforms in New Year’s Rockin Eve, as well as college football and a huge slate of Christmas programming. To have those shows go uninterrupted just felt like the best way to keep to keep growing them, which is our goal.” Both Will Trent and The Rookie are likely to have about 18 episodes next season.
ABC will also feature some Monday Night Football games in the fall, though not every week as was the case in 2023 (the full NFL schedule is due to be released on Thursday). On off weeks, Erwich said, ABC will feature a mix of specials, episodes of its game shows and drama repeats.
ABC’s schedule for fall is below. All times are ET/PT unless noted, and new series are in italics.
Monday
8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT: Monday Night Football (select weeks)
Tuesday
8 p.m.: Dancing With the Stars
10 p.m.: High Potential
Wednesday
8 p.m.: The Golden Bachelorette
9:30 p.m.: Abbott Elementary
10 p.m.: Scamanda
Thursday
8 p.m.: 911
9 p.m.: Doctor Odyssey
10 p.m.: Grey’s Anatomy
Friday
8 p.m.: Shark Tank
9 p.m.: 20/20
Saturday
7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT: Saturday Night College Football
Sunday
7 p.m.: America’s Funniest Home Videos
8 p.m.: The Wonderful World of Disney
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