Shonda Rhimes owns Thursdays on ABC this fall.
ABC unveiled its schedule for the 2014-15 TV season on Tuesday, and Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal are moving up an hour to make room for Rhimes’ new drama How to Get Away With Murder at 10/9c.
RELATED | 2014 Renewal Scorecard: What’s Cancelled? What’s Returning?
Also of note: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. moves to 9 pm, with the new comedies Selfie and Manhattan Love Story now opening Tuesday night. Marvel’s Agent Carter and Galavant, meanwhile, will air during the winter, bridging the split seasons of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Once Upon a Time, respectively.
In addition to Agent Carter and Galavant, on tap for midseason are the dramas American Crime, The Club, Secrets and Lies, The Astronaut Wives Club and The Whispers, the comedy Fresh Off the Boat and new seasons of The Bachelor, The Taste and The Great Christmas Light Fight.
PHOTOS | Fall TV Preview: Your Guide to All of the New Shows
All told, the ABC schedule looks like this; new shows are in CAPS, click for details.
MONDAY
8 pm Dancing With the Stars
10 pm Castle
TUESDAY
8 pm SELFIE
8:30 pm MANHATTAN LOVE STORY
9 pm Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
10 pm FOREVER
WEDNESDAY
8 pm The Middle
8:30 pm The Goldbergs
9 pm Modern Family
9:30 pm BLACK-ISH
10 pm Nashville
RELATED | Fall TV Grid: What’s on When? And Versus What?
THURSDAY
8 pm Grey’s Anatomy
9 pm Scandal
10 pm HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER
FRIDAY
8 pm Last Man Standing
8:30 pm CRISTELA
9 pm Shark Tank
10 pm 20/20
SATURDAY
Saturday Night Football
SUNDAY
7 pm America’s Funniest Home Videos
8 pm Once Upon a Time
9 pm Resurrection
10 pm Revenge
VIDEO | Fall TV First Look: Watch Clips of ABC’s New Shows
NOT RETURNING NEXT SEASON: The Assets, Back in the Game, Betrayal, Killer Women, Lucky 7, Mind Games, Mixology, The Neighbors, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, Suburgatory, Super Fun Night and Trophy Wife
Grey’s Anatomy and Bones get to go up against football then the unstoppable Big Bang Theory. Not to mention each other. Fun placement.
SHIELD works better at 9 so this move is good for them. The Thursdays shuffle is not so good. The show that built Shondaland is getting the “Private Practice” treatment to make way for younger shows. I’m not sure Scandal is suitable for the 9 pm slot. Greys has been number one at this time for years. ABC is effectively allowing it to become a second tier show. The sacrificial lamb for the new fare. Grey’s will undoubtedly go the way of SVU, not great in ratings but worth keeping around for a while.
Agree, but there is an old saying – ‘Youth must be served.’ Running a network (and the competition between networks) is in a way like sports – say, competing football teams. You have to keep bringing in new players to plan for the eventual retirement of the older players. Otherwise, the team loses its competitive edge, and starts losing. Maybe you have to let your star quarterback go a year or two early, but you need to ensure the next generation quarterback is ready and allowed to go out onto the field to shine.
That’s what is happening with ABC – Grey’s is the oldest of the shows, so it is natural that ABC might start taking some risks here to allow the newer/younger shows to have their time in the spot light. One day, Scandal will be where Grey’s is, and ABC hopes by that time, they’ll have another show or two like Scandal for eventual replacement. Better to plan ahead, and that is what ABC is trying to do.
The other option is to not plan ahead, lose some of your existing star shows to retirement, and you have nothing ready as a replacement. A good example? NBC [who would have guessed?] and their comedy lineup. Too many years of slow decline, no replacements ready for this recent group of comedy retirements/cancellations – Office, 30 Rock, P&R (soon) and Community. And now, NBC basically has all rookie shows – that is a bad scenario – no where to place them on the schedule with some ‘protection.’
ABC does not want to end up like NBC – if they can avoid it. CBS is in the same boat – trying to avoid having a comedy lineup at this time next year that includes only one real success – TBBT.
Maybe that is the real problem with comedy on broadcast television these days – all three networks that operate full time are suffering the same fate – failure to produce enough half hour comedies to back-fill the ones that they are losing either to age or to neglect or to abject failure. If this is indeed a trend (and networks should be able to figure this out), this is a trend that they need to stop and remedy soon.
I loved The Neighbors (I thought it was so Funny), Suburgatory & Trophy Wife. I only have VOD not DVR so I end up catching up on everything on the weekends. You can only watch so much on at the same time. I guess thats the price you pay. Maybe I should just channel flip the whole time to show some support for shows I like! Ugh!!
I couldnt agree more. Trophy Wife is an excellent show with a great cast. The writing is funny and endearing. Last nights episode was both and placing this show after Modern Family is an excellent idea.
I am super bummed I don’t see Sea of Fire on this list! Does that mean it’s definitely dead?
Why isn’t Betrayal coming back? Think it was left unfinished…
Trophy Wife was a great family show! Funny laugh out loud comedy! This show needs to be reconsidered by ABC executives or CBS or NBC. It’s really that funny!
I really like RUSH, but can’t get past another drug user, so I tuned out.
Why must the tv stations show greys anatomy and bones on the same day and time!
I don’t like the fact that scandal and blacklist are on at 9:00