Bucking this week’s cancellation trend, ABC on Friday renewed all five of its remaining scripted bubble shows. For those keeping track at home, that includes dramas Big Sky (for Season 3) and A Million Little Things (for Season 5), as well as comedies The Conners (for Season 5), Home Economics (for Season 3) and The Wonder Years (for Season 2).
ABC has renewed the unscripted series The Bachelor, American Idol, Shark Tank, America’s Funniest Home Videos and Celebrity Wheel of Fortune for new seasons.
TV’s annual springtime rite of (anxious) passage known as “Bubble Watch” is coming down to the wire. With the traditional upfront week set to get underway May 16, the five broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and The CW — are poised to decide the fate of roughly two dozen in-limbo series.
Fox and NBC got more than a quarter of their primetime audience this season from live sports, while ABC and CBS are less dependent.
The ABC dramas Queens and Promised Land have both been canceled after one season at ABC. Queens concluded its season on the broadcaster back in February. After initially debuting on ABC, Promised Land was moved to Hulu exclusively after five episodes.
Once again, ABC and Tom Werner’s Werner Entertainment have taken a key step toward the renewal of popular comedy series The Conners by making new deals with the four principal cast members of the Roseanne spinoff.
Exclusives
Abbott Elementary got an A+ from ABC on its season finale, tripling its ratings with seven days of delayed viewing across DVRs, Hulu and other digital platforms. The 9 o’clock on Tuesdays freshman comedy managed an initial 0.6 rating among adults 18-49 and 2.8 million total viewers for its April 12 finale, according to Live + Same Day data from Nielsen. Adding in a week of multiplatform viewing, the episode jumped 200% to a 1.8 rating, tying the show’s series high, and added 3.1 million viewers to reach 5.9 million total, per ABC.
Dozens Of New Advertisers Join NFL Draft Telecast On ESPN, ABC
The telecast is sold out across its three days on ESPN, ABC and the NFL Network with 30 first-time advertisers on board.
There’s a bit of serendipity that some of ABC’s Black-ish takes place at an advertising agency, where Andre Johnson (played by Anthony Anderson) works. Throughout eight seasons of “Black-ish,” viewers have seen Dre dream up with ways to capitalize and promote various brands, both fictional (“Boxable”) and not (Starbucks). As Dre was helping brands expand their footprint, so too was Black-ish turning into a lucrative and far-reaching franchise itself for Disney, ABC and creator Kenya Barris. The comedy concluded its eight-season run on April 19, but that doesn’t mean the end of the “-ish” universe.
The 1980s-set comedy has been renewed for its 10th season on ABC. The renewal arrives a month after star and executive producer Wendi McLendon-Covey signed a new deal to return with producers Sony Pictures Television. The pact, which sources note includes an option for an 11th season, included a sizable pay bump.
‘Abbott Elementary’ And Quinta Brunson Could School The Emmys With Record-Breaking Nominations For Black Women
If the Oscars were looking for a good mood with CODA, then the TV Academy might look to Philadelphia school teachers’ delightful and charming maneuvers with ABC’s hit Abbott Elementary, which just had its season finale on April 12. Created, written and executive produced by Quinta Brunson, the mockumentary sitcom serves as a lovely reminder of the challenges that educators face daily, both in pre- and post-pandemic society, that undervalues their contributions and roles in the lives of our children.
The Talk, CBS’s answer to ABC’s The View, has been renewed for a 13th season, the hosts said on-air Monday and CBS later tweeted from The Talk’s Twitter feed. The Talk will return with all of this season’s hosts — Akbar Gbajabiamila, Amanda Kloots, Jerry O’Connell, Natalie Morales and Sheryl Underwood — coming back.
While Black-ish took on thorny issues, it never surrendered the laughs in its more than 170 episodes, said Courtney Lilly, a writer on the series since its first season who became an executive producer and its showrunner. “Obviously, there were episodes where we made sure we approached issues. But even in doing those we were relevant and funny,” Lilly said.
Timed to the Season 1 finale of hit ABC sitcom Abbott Elementary, Warner Bros. Television is donating 150,000 meals to Feeding America. Along with the meal donations, the show’s Think Outside the (Lunch) Box campaign aims to raise awareness about food insecurity with a week-long series on social media encouraging others to support Feeding America. From April 11 to 15, Warner Bros. TV will partner with influencer chefs Eitan Bernath and Ahmad Alzahbi, who will create lunchbox meals while discussing the impacts of food insecurity.
The series, which debuted on ABC in 2005, will jump to Disney+ in the fall. The move comes in conjunction with a two-season renewal that will take DWTS through a 32nd cycle. The switch was prompted in part by ABC’s plans to simulcast several games on ESPN’s Monday Night Football slate in the fall. The broadcaster will also have an exclusive Monday Night Football contest at some point in the NFL season. Dancing With the Stars will also become the first live series on Disney+.
Judge Steve Harvey is getting a second season at ABC as the network also renews Bachelor In Paradise. The network made the renewals as part of a slew of unscripted news including new specials and game shows.
Generation Gap, the game show from Jimmy Kimmel and Mark Burnett, is finally getting a slot at ABC. Nearly three years after its order, the network will launch the series this July with Kelly Ripa as host. The show, which is produced by Kimmel’s Kimmelot, MGM Television and Ripa and Mark Consuelos’ Milojo, is a comedy quiz show that groups family members of different generations who must work together to answer questions about each other’s generations.
At least four years ago, over dinner at Frankies in Brooklyn, Jimmy Kimmel threw out a wacky idea to fellow latenight host, Jimmy Fallon: What if the two switched shows for a night? Nearly half a decade later, on April Fools’ Day, the two Jimmys pulled it off, surprising their latenight audiences and everyone watching at home, when they came out on each other’s shows: Kimmel as host of NBC’s The Tonight Show from New York and Fallon emceeing ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live from Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles. To ensure the whole thing remained a secret, only a cadre of relevant producers, writers and network executives were let in on the gag.
The network revealed the renewal on Wednesday. Season 4 of The Rookie opened with a 0.3 rating in the 18-49 demo and 2.8 million viewers and has remained fairly steady in demo throughout the season. According to ABC, The Rookie season 4 averages 10 million total viewers after 35 days of viewing across ABC’s linear and digital platforms, growing six times over its initial Live+Same Day rating among adults 18-49 with a lift of 500% after 35 days of multiplatform viewing.
ABC’s Rob Mills was sitting in the Oscars production trailer on Sunday night when the show’s producers and director Glenn Weiss realized things were starting to go awry.
Actors Vanessa Hudgens and Terrence J and fashion designer Brandon Maxwell will host The Oscars Red Carpet Show, the official lead-in to the 2022 Oscars on Sunday, March 27, producers Will Packer and Shayla Cowan announced Wednesay. The Oscars Red Carpet Show will air at 6:30 p.m. ET / 3:30 p.m. PT, on ABC before the Oscars broadcast, set for 8/5.
The network has greenlit Claim to Fame, a competition show in which 12 people related to celebrities “step outside their famous family member’s shadow and live together under one roof, concealing their identity and lineage in the quest for their own fame and fortune.” Brothers Kevin and Frankie Jonas will host the show, which comes from Love Is Blind producer Kinetic Content and Walt Disney Television’s year-old alternative unit.
Disney Advertising Sales said that the commercial inventory for Sunday’s Oscars telecast is sold out. The top tier of sponsors — ”proud sponsors” — include newcomers Crypto.com and, Pfizer, as well as returning sponsors Rolex and Verizon. Proud sponsors get four spots in the telecast. While traditional TV viewership is dropping, and even major events like the Academy Awards have seen their ratings plunge, streaming services have clamored to be seen by movie fans on the ABC broadcast.
Grey’s Anatomy consulting producer Elisabeth Finch (center, in scrubs) has been placed on administrative leave following an allegation that she may have fudged details about her medical and personal history while writing for the ABC drama. Finch’s claims are currently under review.
ABC’s breakout comedy hit Abbott Elementary will be back for another school year. The Alphabet net confirmed on Monday that the critically acclaimed workplace laffer, from Warner Bros. TV and 20th Television, has been renewed for the second grade, a.k.a. Season 2.
In a letter sent Tuesday to members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the group’s president, David Rubin, said that the awards for film editing, production design, sound, makeup and hairstyling, music (original score) and the three short film awards (documentary, live-action and animated) will be presented at the ceremony before the March 27 live broadcast begins on ABC.
The moderator said she and her colleagues on the ABC show would “keep having tough conversations” as she added that she listened to those who reached out to her.
Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) is set to make its broadcast TV debut. The Oscar-nominated documentary will air Feb. 20 on ABC, the network said today. Acclaimed musician Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson made his directorial debut with the film, which tells the story of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival at Mount Morris Park — just 100 miles south of Woodstock.
ABC is planning a spinoff of The Rookie with Niecy Nash set to star. The new show will be introduced in a two-episode backdoor pilot during The Rookie’s current fourth season. While the mothership show focuses on the LAPD, the potential new show would focus on the FBI.
Saturday’s All-Star Game from Las Vegas will be on ABC, and marks the beginning of ESPN ramping up its coverage for the second half of the season. ESPN will have 11 games starting later this month, while ABC’s regular-season package of Saturday games begins on Feb. 26.
ABC’s decision to suspend Whoopi Goldberg from The View for two weeks for her remarks about the Holocaust has opened the network up to criticism that its response derailed a teachable moment for the nation about a sensitive topic often misunderstood and seldom discussed on air.
The new ABC sitcom by Quinta Brunson about a Philadelphia public school is a relatable balm during a period of intense stress for educators.
Single-camera comedy series Maggie, originally picked up by ABC for the 2021-22 season, now will stream exclusively on sibling Hulu in the U.S. as a Hulu Original. The decision, underscoring the blurring of the lines between linear and streaming at the major media companies, was made in order to get Maggie in front of audiences instead of keeping it on the bench because of a lack of available slots on the network.
The Oscars will return with a host, three years after it last had one. The announcement came from Craig Erwich, president, Hulu Originals & ABC Entertainment, during his TCA executive session. The exec didn’t give any more details in terms of who will host the annual movie bash but joked that it might be him.
ABC has renewed Station 19 for a sixth season, with Krista Vernoff remaining as showrunner. Through the first eight episodes of Season 5, the firefighter drama is averaging 6.3 million total viewers and a 1.0 demo rating (with Live+7 DVR playback), ranking third and second among all ABC dramas.
The network has ordered four additional episodes of the family comedy series, bringing its season nine total to a full 22. The news, announced by Wendi McLendon-Covey, has nothing to do with the previously announced departure of fellow original star Jeff Garlin.
