Hollywood
ABC Network cutting back on drama series
ABC canceled three of their hour-long drama series this week.
ABC appears to be cutting down in the drama department. The network canceled three of its hour-long drama series this week.
The network has canceled first-year shows ‘Alaska Daily’ and ‘The Company You Keep’ and ‘Big Sky,’ which ran for three seasons. While they’re the first cancellations ABC has made this season; fellow drama ‘A Million Little Things’ and comedy ‘The Goldbergs’ announced their endings ahead of time.
‘Alaska Daily,’ which stars Hilary Swank as a reporter trying to rebuild her career in the titular state, had the biggest total audience among the three canceled shows at 5.3 million viewers over seven days. However, it also had the second smallest rating (0.41) among any ABC drama in the adults 18-49 demographic that’s key to advertisers.
‘Alaska Daily’ and ‘The Company You Keep’ were both produced by ABC’s Disney sibling 20th Television, while ‘Big Sky’ is a co-production of 20th TV and A+E Studios. ABC has yet to make decisions on four series: ‘The Conners,’ ‘Home Economics,’ ‘Not Dead Yet’ and ‘The Rookie: Feds.’
New original upcoming series
ABC also has six pilots, four dramas, and two comedies in the works for the upcoming season. Decisions on those projects will be made next week, as sources for The Hollywood Reporter say the Disney-owned network is still in talks with producers and the multiple outside studios behind many of the programs.
ABC is expected to unveil its fall schedule on Tuesday morning this upcoming week. It is unclear if the network’s fall schedule will ignore the potential fallout from the Writers Guild of America strike, similar to CBS, or if it will take the work stoppage into account.
What ABC series will continue?
In better news, ABC has also given the green light for several fan-favorite series. Veteran shows ‘Abbott Elementary,’ ‘The Good Doctor,’ ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ ‘The Rookie,’ and ‘Station 19′ have all been renewed for another season.
However, the fate of most of ABC’s freshman series is looking more dire. Only ‘Will Trent’ was renewed for season two.
According to reports, it’s not likely that ABC will renew the freshmen series ‘Not Dead Yet,’ and ‘The Rookie: Feds’. While fans of the Fox series ‘911*’ can rejoice as the series moves to ABC for its seventh upcoming season.