Why is The Good Doctor not new tonight, April 16?

The Good Doctor fans have had a lot to deal with in the last few weeks, including the tragic loss of a key member of the hospital team and then a chaotic emergency room as a result of a mass casualty event. ABC is giving fans a little bit of time to catch their breath, as there is no new episode of The Good Doctor season 7 on Tuesday, April 16; a rerun of the medical drama is set to air in its usual 10 pm ET/PT time slot.

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It's not alone, as ABC's entire Tuesday night primetime lineup is taking the week off, with reruns airing instead of new episodes for Will Trent season 2 and The Rookie season 6. In fact, all three of these shows aren't returning with new episodes until April 30.

Why the break for The Good Doctor and company? ABC has not given an official reason why, and with reruns airing it is not because of any special programming. So our best guess is that this is a planned break for the shows as they look to have new episodes airing into May, the traditional end of the fall TV season; though at this time, we don't have any info on when The Good Doctor season finale (also series finale) is going to air.

While shows usually do have scheduled breaks like this in their seasons, they're heightened this year because The Good Doctor and others were off the air all in the fall as a result of the 2023 actors' and writers' strikes in Hollywood. The shows are now operating on shortened seasons, with The Good Doctor season 7 only set to air 10 episodes. The first six have already premiered, so that means there are just four episodes left in its farewell season.

Information is already available about the show's next episode, The Good Doctor season 7 episode 7. The episode is titled "Faith," here is the official synopsis:

"Shaun and Jordan's patient is in dire need of a kidney transplant. When they find the perfect donor, they also discover that he believes he is Jesus, which could compromise his ability to give consent to the surgery."

If you need to catch up with any episodes of The Good Doctor, the entire series is available to stream on Hulu for US viewers.