UPFRONTS 2018: ABC's Official Fall Schedule

Here is the ABC schedule!

Past ABC Upfronts: 2017   2016   2015   2014   2013   2012   2011

MONDAYS
8:00 Dancing with the Stars (27th edition)
10:00 The Good Doctor (2nd season)

In an unsurprising move, ABC is keeping its Monday the same as last fall. After airing one full edition followed by an abbreviated athletes edition this spring, Dancing with the Stars returns with a regular edition in the fall. It is followed by this past fall's breakout hit, The Good Doctor, returning to its Monday night perch. Many advocated for a move to an earlier timeslot, but there wasn't really a good one available for it because it doesn't belong with the TGIT crew. I think it's smart to leave it here. It should continue to hold its own against at least one new show (on NBC) and possibly another (on CBS).

TUESDAYS
8:00 Roseanne (2nd season)
8:30 THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT
9:00 Black-ish (5th season)
9:30 Splitting Up Together (2nd season)
10:00 THE ROOKIE

Tuesday nights were instantly changed this spring when the Roseanne revival had a breakout debut and remains TV's top rated show of the season. That allowed it to become the new lead-off show for Tuesday nights with The Middle ending, but its second season (11th overall) is currently only 13 episodes and it's not clear what ABC has up their sleeves for midseason. It is followed by new 70s-set family comedy The Kids are Alright. If Roseanne continues to be big, this show will have every opportunity for solid sampling. The Roseanne halo extended to the 9pm hour this spring and that helped Black-ish and the new Splitting Up Together. The pair stays together for the fall with Splitting showing some promise. The Tuesday 10pm slot continues to be ABC's biggest problem and they are trying again with the return of Nathan Fillion to the network in The Rookie. Although it's never easy for any show, this seems like a solid attempt by ABC to fix an extremely troubled timeslot.

WEDNESDAYS
8:00 The Goldbergs (6th season)
8:30 American Housewife (3rd season)
9:00 Modern Family (10th season)
9:30 SINGLE PARENTS
10:00 A MILLION LITTLE THINGS

Wednesdays has some shakeups and a curious choice by ABC. Rather than launching a new comedy in the better slot: between The Goldbergs and Modern Family, they are sliding American Housewife an hour earlier and then launching the new Single Parents at 9:30pm leading into a new drama, A Million Little Things, at 10pm. Single Parents looks promising and compatible with Modern, but I still think 8:30pm was the slot to launch this in and let Housewife stay at 9:30pm especially with a new drama at 10pm. This could be the final season for Modern Family, but nothing official has been decided. A Million Little Things is going to draw tons of comparisons to This is Us and understandably so. It seems unlikely it will be able to tap into the hit status especially in a slot that wasn't too kind to Nashville or Designated Survivor, but maybe its already buzzy trailer can help it get eyeballs for the premiere.

THURSDAYS
8:00 Grey's Anatomy (15th season)
9:00 Station 19 (2nd season)
10:00 How to Get Away with Murder (5th season)

ABC is indeed keeping TGIT in tact for another year even with Scandal over and the departure of Shonda Rhimes to Netflix. They will go in with 3/4 of their Shonda shows remaining on the network with surprisingly renewal For the People slated to take over when How to Get Away with Murder's season ends. Grey's Anatomy continues to be a war horse heading into its 15th season while Station 19 has had a hard time breaking through this spring. I wouldn't be surprised to see a "re-launch" of sorts in the fall and surely a crossover with Grey's sooner rather than later. Murder is diminishing quickly, but still has a bigger audience than For the People. I get keeping the crew together one more time but I think it might be time to end TGIT for 2019-2020.

FRIDAYS
8:00 Fresh Off the Boat (5th season)
8:30 Speechless (3rd season)
9:00 Child Support (2nd season)
10:00 20/20 (37th season)

After a very rough year of genre shows on the night, ABC is going back to a family comedy hour and unscripted on Friday nights. After clearly being the lowest priority on the weeknights, ABC is sending their modestly rated, non-anchor family comedies to be a pair on Friday nights. It will be interesting to see how Fresh Off the Boat and Speechless do here because they've never been proven to be self starters. However, I can't imagine them doing as poorly as Once Upon a Time did this season. Child Support goes to 9pm after an OK run this winter while 20/20 continues in its longtime 10pm slot.

SATURDAYS
8:00 Saturday Night College Football

SUNDAYS
7:00 America's Funniest Home Videos (29th season)
8:00 DANCING WITH THE STARS JUNIOR
9:00 Shark Tank (10th season)
10:00 THE ALEC BALDWIN SHOW

With Sundays continuing as a placeholder for spring's American Idol, ABC will go all unscripted on the night with no regular drama series since the days of Wonderful World of Disney and a Sunday night movie back in the late 1990s. Following staple America's Funniest Home Videos will be a special kids edition of Dancing with the Stars. I am not sure this is needed or desired and it could be an unnecessary overexposure of the Dancing brand. One reason it stabilized was ABC changing the original to one day instead of two but now they will air this on Sundays and the regular edition on Mondays. I'm not sure I like that plan. Shark Tank airs at 9pm and should be solid as always while The Alec Baldwin Show will be a rare talk show in primetime with a 10pm slot. All these will only last at most until whenever American Idol premieres, which will probably be a few weeks sooner than it was this year.

MIDSEASON: THE FIX, GRAND HOTEL, SCHOOLED, WHISKEY CAVALIER, American Idol, The Bachelor, For the People, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
ABC has much less on deck for midseason than usual though drama False Profits, which got extra script orders, could still be picked up. I already mentioned plans for American Idol and For the People. The Bachelor will certainly return to Mondays while Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was announced as being held until Summer 2019. Whiskey Cavalier seems like a potential post-Idol show.

CANCELLED/ENDED: Alex Inc., The Crossing, Deception, Designated Survivor, Kevin (Probably) Saves the World, Marvel's Inhumans, The Mayor, The Middle, Once Upon a Time, Quantico, Scandal, Ten Days in the Valley, The Toy Box
Weird to see long timers The Middle, Scandal, and Once Upon a Time on this list. They were staples of the ABC lineup for years.

TO SUM UP:
I'm pretty content with this schedule - definitely more-so than FOX and I'd say I like it slightly more than NBC's. The new comedies are promising additions to the ABC family comedy brand and while The Rookie and A Million Little Things are in tough slots, they seem to have a better chance than some entries in those slots. Fridays are a question mark, but I think it's a better lineup than this year. Sundays could be a mess, but it's a temporary lineup. I like the schedule overall but I just wish ABC had picked up more shows especially given the huge list of cancellations. They don't have nearly enough depth if any of their newbies bomb out.