ABC adds drama, ‘ Dancing’ kids and a live ‘ Mermaid’
Network hopes to boost viewership with fall schedule
ABC is adding five series to its fall schedule, and later next season will air its own live musical, Disney’s The Little Mermaid; a new Dancing With the Stars Junior, featuring celebrity kids; and The Bachelor Winter
Games, an athletics challenge with all- star contestants to air opposite NBC’s Winter Olympics.
Fall dramas include Marvel’s Inhumans, getting a splashy debut on IMAX screens ahead of its ABC launch; The Gospel of Kevin, a drama starring Jason Ritter as a man on a downward spiral who, in a vision, is tasked with saving the world; The Good
Doctor, starring Freddie Highmore as a savant physician with autism; and Ten Days
in the Valley, starring Kyra Sedgwick as a single mother and TV crime- show writer whose daughter goes missing. The lone new comedy is The Mayor, about a California rapper who runs for office as a publicity stunt— and unexpectedly wins.
Mayor will air on Tuesdays following a relocated Black- ish, which is swapping nights with American Housewife, Modern Family’s new Wednesday companion. Once
Upon a Time will move to Fridays, where it will be followed by Marvel’s Agents of
S. H. I. E. L. D. once Inhumans completes its run. And Shark Tank will move from Fridays to Sundays, joining a mostly unscripted lineup.
Shonda Rhimes’ Thursday trio remains intact, though ABC confirmed this will be Scandal’s final season. ABC plans a Grey’s Anatomy spinoff from Rhimes set in a Seattle firehouse, though timing is uncertain. Quantico also returns in midseason, when more new series will join the schedule, along with an eight- episode revival of former ABC hit
Roseanne featuring the original cast. And ABC is reviving American Idol, canceled by Fox only last May after a 15- year run, with Katy Perry confirmed Tuesday as “anchor judge” and Ryan Seacrest likely to return as host.
ABC is coming off a tough season: The network ranks third among all viewers, averaging 6.2 million ( down 8% from last season), and fourth among its target audience of adults ages 18 to 49 ( 2.1 million, down 11%). That may be one reason for the interest in Idol as a potential 2018 boost, and the cancellation of several series, including comedies Last Man Standing, The Real O’Neals and Dr. Ken; low- rated limited series Secrets and Lies and American Crime; and freshmen bombs Time After Time, Imaginary Mary, Conviction and Notorious.