ABC

The renewal comes amid strong ratings for Season 6. The Alexi Hawley-created crime drama starring Nathan Fillion kicked off its sixth season with its most-watched episode in nearly six years, with 11.92 million total viewers across platforms after 35 days of viewing. That’s up 14% from its Season 5 average and marks the show’s strongest MP35 number since Oct. 23, 2018, according to the network and Nielsen.

Audiences seem to have enjoyed 9-1-1 paying homage to The Poseidon Adventure. Bobby and Athena’s three-episode cruise ship disaster came to a dramatic conclusion during the March 28 episode which, after seven days of multi-platform viewing, became the series’ most-watched telecast in more than two years. According to Disney, the episode drew 10.72 million viewers in seven days of viewing across ABC, Hulu and digital platforms. That’s nearly double the audience of 5.5 million that tuned in live + same-day.

South Carolina defeated Iowa in front of a record-breaking national audience on Sunday. The NCAA Women’s Championship delivered 18.7M viewers across ABC and ESPN, which marks an 89% increase in viewership year-over-year. Not only is that the most-watched women’s college basketball game on record, the matchup is also the second most-watched non-Olympic women’s sporting event ever on U.S. television. It comes in behind only the 2015 Women’s World Cup Final, according to Nielsen data. Pictured: South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley cuts down the net after her team’s 87-75 victory. (Morry Gash/AP)

The crime drama recently scored its most watched episode to date in multi-platform viewing.

A former ABC director of development is taking the network, parent company Disney and John Ridley to court for gender, racial and economic discrimination, claiming they firing her when she complained about the alleged situation. In a nine-claim complaint filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Asta Jonasson says she was pink-slipped in 2022 after more than a decade at ABC after putting in writing her frequently mentioned grievances about being overlooked for promotions and underpaid.

Grey’s Anatomy continues to be in a league of its own, landing a renewal for a 21st season. The pickup, which comes three episodes into Grey’s Anatomy‘s landmark 20th season, extends its record as the longest-running primetime medical drama, which it initially set in 2019, and the longest-running ABC primetime scripted series. Season 21 is expected to consist of 18 episodes, up from the 10-episode strike-impacted 20th season.

The Big Four affiliates want federal regulators to drop plans of keeping a record of signal blackouts that result from contract disputes between TV stations and cable and satellite TV providers. Lawyers for some 600 stations affiliated with ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox networks delivered that message to the FCC this week along with a fresh request that online linear video providers like YouTube TV should be classified as the legal equivalent of cable and satellite TV operators and brought within the carriage distribution system known as retransmission consent.

Abbott Elementary and its creator and star, Quinta Brunson, are out of legal detention. A judge in New York dismissed a lawsuit against Brunson, 34, and ABC filed by writer Christine Davis in 2021, claiming the hit sitcom was a “veritable knock-off” of her show This School Year. According to the court decision, the judge found that “no discerning observer would find the works to be substantially similar.”

Former President Donald Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against ABC News on Monday, arguing that the anchor George Stephanopoulos had harmed his reputation by saying multiple times on-air that the former president had been found liable for raping the writer E. Jean Carroll.

ABC is piloting a new Alzheimer’s comedy starring and exec produced by Ty Burrell. The project, which comes from Punky Brewster duo Eugene Garcia-Cross and Robin Shorr, is now moving forward.

An estimated 19.5 million people watched Sunday night’s 96th Academy Awards ceremony on ABC. That’s the biggest number drawn by the telecast in four years. But that upward trend comes from an all-time low during the pandemic, and is up just 4% from last year’s estimated audience of 18.7 million, according to numbers released Monday by ABC. Pictured: Ryan Gosling performs the song I’m Just Ken from the movie Barbie during the Oscars. (Chris Pizzello/AP)

An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution will air later this month. Oprah recorded the special in front of a studio audience and gathers medical experts to discuss weight loss drugs such as Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy.

The Academy Awards have long been a showcase for marketers, with the broadcast one of the few non-sports events to routinely rate among the most popular TV programs each year (the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is the other big one). Disney says that TikTok will sponsor a “first-of-its-kind red carpet live stream,” with tequila brand Don Julio sponsoring an “in-show moment.” Rolex and Bank of America will also be integrated into the broadcast, which will be hosted by ABC latenight host Jimmy Kimmel.

Only Murders In The Building, the Hulu comedy starring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez, could remain on ABC in addition to streaming. The Hulu original premiered on its sibling linear network earlier this month, coming as the network had a largely unscripted fall slate due to the Hollywood strikes. It remains on the streaming service. ABC and Hulu boss Craig Erwich, speaking at the TCA press tour, said: “We’re certainly open to doing it with Only Murders again and or other shows. When we look at both ABC and Hulu, it’s one big chessboard, so you’re able to see where certain audiences watch certain shows, some migrate from one platform to another. Only Murders was really a perfect show to put on ABC.

The comedy series has been renewed for Season 4 at ABC, as announced by Willard R. Abbott Elementary’s own Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis) during Disney’s Television Critics Association Press Tour. The renewal comes on the heels of the much-anticipated Season 3 premiere, which was delayed due to last year’s strikes.

On Feb. 1, the “Lunch Break with Abbott Elementary National Tour” will kick off in New York City, featuring a giant, street-legal Abbott Elementary-themed lunch box vehicle that will make stops in 18 states. Teachers and staff in underserved school districts will receive Abbott Elementary tin lunch boxes including sandwiches, sides and beverages sourced from local businesses in each city as well as reusable Abbott Elementary tote bags filled with school and desk supplies.

ABC is teasing the return of its primetime fare post-Hollywood strikes with two waves of promos. This week, the Alphabet network is sharing a teaser showing the first look from its returning series Abbott Elementary, The Bachelor, Not Dead Yet, The Conners, Will Trent, The Rookie, The Good Doctor, American Idol, 9-1-1 (newly imported from Fox), Station 19 and Grey’s Anatomy. Next week, ABC will unveil the full new season trailer for those shows.

In the latest TV show ratings, Part 1 of NCIS: Sydney‘s Season 1 finale on CBS was Tuesday’s most-watched program, while Fox’s The Floor tied ABC’s Celebrity Jeopardy! for the night’s highest demo rating.

The decision was made after candidate Nikki Haley refused to participate without Donald Trump’s presence.

The Golden Wedding has grown its audience 36% in the seven days since it aired on ABC on January 4, tallying 7.13M viewers across linear and streaming, according to Nielsen data. Gerry Turner’s nuptials to Theresa Nist managed about 5.2M live + same-day viewers; the episode also grew its rating in the 18-49 demographic by 105%, ballooning from a 0.63 to a 1.29.

The forthcoming seventh season of The Good Doctor will be its final one, ABC announced Thursday. The medical drama, a co-production of Sony Pictures Television and ABC Signature, is slated to premiere Feb. 20. The Good Doctor is the second long-running ABC drama slated to end this season. Station 19, the first responder-focused spinoff of Grey’s Anatomy, will also close out its run with a seventh season.

The Grey’s Anatomy spinoff will end this year with an abbreviated seventh season. With Station 19 and Grey’s serving as the only remaining shows on ABC produced by hitmaker Shonda Rhimes — who is now based exclusively at Netflix — why would the network ax one of its Thursday staples? The answer can be found in the math.

The annual special was up 30% in primetime on ABC with an average of about 8.4 million people tuning in from 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Meanwhile, the latenight edition posted a whopping 18 million viewers, soaring to 22.2 million by the time the ball dropped in Times Square. As expected, the audience grew as the night went on. By 10:30 p.m., about 10.4 million people were watching, while the first two hours of the show averaged around 7 million. Things fell off after midnight, with the second half of the latenight show only drawing 5.1 million.

The Disney-owned broadcast network on Friday revealed that the upcoming seventh season of the firefighter-focused spinoff of Grey’s Anatomy will be its last.

Ryan Seacrest will usher in 2024 on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve from New York City’s Times Square on Dec. 31, alongside his host Rita Ora. There will once again be satellite locations in Los Angeles — hosted by Jeannie Mai — and a Spanish language countdown with host Dayanara Torres live from San Juan’s Puerto Rico Convention Center.

As it prepares to start returning new episodes of its strike-delayed series starting in February, the Alphabet net will fill the January gap with episodes of Only Murders in the Building on Tuesdays. All 10 episodes of the Hulu show’s Season 1 will air back-to-back, starting with the first three episodes on Tuesday, Jan. 2.

The 96th Oscars will begin one hour early, with the official show starting at 7 p.m. ET for the first time, ABC said Thursday. The official pre-show will also begin earlier, at 6:30. The show has traditionally begun at 8 p.m. Despite various experiments to keep the runtime to three hours, the broadcast has sometimes stretched into the 11 o’clock hour.

ABC said it renewed its deal with Dick Clair Productions and will air Dick Clair’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest for five years through Jan. 1, 2029. Rockin’ Eve has been the highest-rated New Year’s special for 30 years, ABC said. Last New Year’s, it drew an average of 13.3 million including 17.9 million during the midnight quarter hour. Seacrest has been hosting ABC’s New Year’s special solo since 2012. He and Dick Clark hosted together beginning in 2005 following Clark’s stroke in 2004.

ABC has revealed its midseason lineup, which kicks off Monday, January 22 with a two-hour premiere of The Bachelor, as Joey Graziadei begins his journey to find love. It will be followed by an as-yet untitled new eight-episode true-crime series of ABC News’ 20/20.

Jimmy Kimmel is set to host the 96th Academy Awards, marking the fourth time and second straight year that the Jimmy Kimmel Live! mainstay has done the gig. The ceremony is March 10 on ABC.