No ‘Bachelor’ Show, ‘High Potential’ Midseason
Keeping with the steadiness theme within the different broadcast schedules launched to this point, ABC too went for minimal modifications, holding a number of nights intact. But the one main transfer the community has made is fairly daring — it has left its No. 1 collection, High Potential, off the autumn schedule, holding the hit crime drama starring Kaitlin Olson on the bench for midseason.
Also like the opposite main broadcast networks, ABC is rising its scripted slate for 2026-27. What’s extra, “We are not only growing our scripted slate but for the first time in, literally, the history of ABC, have renewed every one of our scripted seriesand they’re renewed because they’re all performing well,” mentioned Ari Goldman, SVP, Content Strategy and Scheduling.
And for the primary time since earlier than the pandemic, there shall be no Bachelor-branded collection on ABC’s fall schedule amid the turmoil surrounding the newest installment of The Bachelorette.
Here is ABC’s fall 2026 schedule, adopted by evaluation and an outline of the community’s sole new collection for subsequent season, The Rookie: Northwhich, as anticipated, will debut in midseason.
ABC’S 2026 FALL PRIMETIME SCHEDULE (all occasions listed are Eastern/Pacific).
MONDAY
8 PM – ESPN’s Monday Night Football
TUESDAY
8 PM – Dancing with the Stars
10 PM – RJ Decker
WEDNESDAY
8 PM – Scrubs
8:30 PM – Abbott Elementary
9 PM – Celebrity Jeopardy!
10 PM – Shark Tank
THURSDAY
8 PM – 9-1-1
9 PM – 9-1-1: Nashville
10 PM – Grey’s Anatomy
FRIDAY
8 PM – Celebrity Wheel of Fortune
9 PM – 20/20 (two hours)
SATURDAY
7:30 PM – College Football
SUNDAY
7 PM – America’s Funniest Home Videos
8 PM – The Wonderful World of Disney
For the primary time since 2019-20, ABC won’t have a Bachelor franchise collection on the autumn schedule after airing installments of The Bachelorette, Golden Bachelor and Golden Bachelorette to kick off the season for the previous six years.
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“We’ve had to try simply managing the franchise correctly. These exhibits have monumental fan bases, and we had been so thrilled the yr that we had been in a position to launch Golden Bachelor and have it stand out in that fall season the way in which that it did,” Goldman mentioned of the autumn 2023 breakout. “But I think that the usual cadence that we like to find ourselves in is really the flagship series in midseason and then having some summer edition, which we have already locked in on Bachelor of Paradise for next season. So this is more of a return to a steady state on the franchise.”
As Goldman alluded, ABC has The Bachelor on faucet for midseason and Bachelor in Paradise for summer season 2027. As for the unaired season of The Bachelorette starring Taylor Frankie Paul, “there are no plans that I’m currently ready to share” about placing it on the air, Goldman mentioned.
In his second yr, High Potential is ABC’s prime collection in complete viewers adults 18-49. It can be the No.1 broadcast leisure collection of the season in 18-49 (Live+7) and No.3 in complete multiplatform viewers (via 35 days). So why is ABC beginning the season with out its prime leisure performer?
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“What we’ve seen the last several years, and we’ve really come this out with Will Trent and The Rookie back in midseason of 24 and 25, is we want to give viewers a chance to watch these shows with as little interruption as possible across the season,” Goldman said. “So I think when we get to the midseason plans, and you think about the opportunities that we have on the ABC schedule, going from New Year’s Rockin’ Eve to the College Football Playoff, the Grammys, the Oscars and obviously the Super Bowl. “I think we have such amazing momentum at the start of 27 to bring the show back in a big way.”
Goldman pointed to success Will Trent and The Rookie have had as midseason replacements within the final couple of seasons (The Rookie simply logged its most streamed premiere with the Season 8 opener) and to the truth that High Potential posted the largest Season 1 to Season 2 improve for a community drama since glee again in 2010. “So, clearly, the show is resilient,” he mentioned.
In January 2025, Will Trent, High Potential and The Rookie launched a brand new Tuesday lineup of sunshine, character-based crime procedurals, for which “we’ve kind of lovingly coined the phrase Tuesday Cluesday,” Goldman mentioned.
The trio reunited this previous January earlier than The Rookie was despatched to Mondays to make room for a brand new Tuesday Cluesday lineup member at 10 PM, new collection RJ Decker.
Scott Speedman in ‘RJ Decker’
ABC
ABC just isn’t revealing its midseason scheduling plans however High Potential and Will Trent seem more likely to return to Tuesday. RJ Decker is staying in its present Tuesday 10 PM slot into the autumn the place it is going to air behind Dancing With the Stars.
“I think what we now have an opportunity to do with the biggest lead-in by a mile on television, in Dancing with the Stars, is really infuse a lot of energy into this show and get a jump on the season and bring it back as quickly as we can,” Goldman mentioned.
Like most midseason entries, RJ Decker it’s believed to have been renewed with a partial order. In success, it could possibly be expanded, I hear, so the collection starring Scott Speedman might presumably reunite with Will Trent and High Potential on Tuesday in January.
Meanwhile, The Rookie is more likely to be paired with The Rookie: North, which additionally premieres in midseason, with the mothership, starring Nathan Fillion, serving as a lead-in for the spinoff, headlined by Jay Ellis.
“We haven’t announced our midseason plans, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that there are benefits to pairing shows from these universes together; we’ve seen the strength, said Goldman, who spent years at NBC watching the Dick Wolf franchise stacks in action. “It is solely a rule of viewers stream that exhibits and their spinoffs could have larger compatibility than different pairings. I believe again to once I began right here at ABC the yr that we launched Rookie: Feds, and actually the advantage of bringing these exhibits collectively in midseason was very clear.”
The Rookie and spinoff The Rookie: Feds aired at 8 PM and 9 PM on Tuesday in midseason 2023, adopted by Will Trent.
In addition to RJ Decker, ABC can be bringing its different midseason 2026 breakout new collection, the scrubs reboot, again within the fall to keep away from a big hole. The medical comedy is staying paired with Abbott Elementarand the way in which they had been within the spring, with Abbott‘s fall 2025 companion, Shifting Gears, again on the midseason bench for its third season. (The Tim Allen sitcom began in midseason earlier than shifting to fall in Season 2.)
“We love the momentum on scrubs, it was the No.1 new comedy on a multiplatform basis, it was the No.1 comedy in 18-49 on linear this season, so we want to really keep that show present and top of mind as we head into the fall,” Goldman said. “At the same time, Shifting Gears has been a really stellar and consistent performer for us across its two seasons. In fact, it ended Season 2 stronger than where it ended Season 1, which is not always the case in this challenging environment.”
With scrubs given a 10-episode Season 2 order, Shifting Gears is anticipated to succeed it alongside Abbott Elementary in midseason the place its return “will be very prominently featured alongside” the high-profile sports activities and leisure specials at first of the yr to put it up for sale.
Thursday, Sunday and Monday are staying establishment with 9-1-1, 9-1-1: Nashville and Grey’s Anatomy on Thursday, simulcast of ESPN’s Monday Night Football on most Monday nights and The Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday, kicking off with the world tv premiere of Inside Out 2.
NEW DRAMA SERIES
Jay Ellis in ‘The Rookie: North’
Disney/Dark Sikman
THE ROOKIE: NORTH
Expanding the universe, The Rookie: North introduces Alex Holland who believed his midlife wasn’t worthy of a disaster. But after a violent dwelling invasion ignites a dormant goal, Alex battles a lifetime of failed commitments by becoming a member of the Pierce County Police Department as a rookie. Policing from the city coast to the agricultural forest the place backup is not simply 5 minutes away, Alex should show to his skeptical coaching officer, his fellow rookies and himself, that he is lastly discovered one thing worthy of the combat. The all-new collection stars Jay Ellis, Janet Montgomery, Karen Fukuhara, Chris Sullivan, Froy Gutierrez, Mya Lowe and Malik Watson.
The Rookie: North is a derivative of The Rookie, the lengthy working hit collection that was created by Alexi Hawley and lately renewed for a ninth season at ABC. Both collection are produced by Lionsgate Television in partnership with twentieth Television. Alexi Hawley will function government producer and author, with Nathan Fillion, Mark Gordon, Bill Norcross and Michelle Chapman additionally government producing. Ellis is a producer.
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