ABC Fall Schedule: Once Bumped to Friday, black-ish Shifts to Tuesday, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. M.I.A.
ABC is the third network, following NBC and Fox, to announce its schedule for the 2017-18 TV season, and the big news: Once Upon a Time is getting a brand new time slot to go with its major Season 7 reset.
The venerable fantasy drama will shift from Sundays-at-8 to Fridays-at-8, where it will lead into the new Marvel entry Inhumans.
Also on the move is Wednesday comedy staple black-ish, which will vacate its post-Modern Family perch to assume the Tuesday-at-9 anchor position.
Other key takeaways from ABC’s sked: The buzzy David-Shore produced medical drama The Good Doctor, starring Bates Motel‘s Freddie Highmore, has landed the cushy post Dancing With the Stars slot on Mondays and the Jason Ritter-led Gospel of Kevin will replace Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on Tuesdays-at-10. S.H.I.E.L.D., meanwhile, will take over the Fridays-at-9 time slot once Inhumans wraps its eight-episode run (and ABC confirms it has received a full 22-episode order.)
Also on tap for midseason is the just-renewed Quantico, the Roseanne revival as well as new series THE CROSSING, DECEPTION, FOR THE PEOPLE, SPLITTING UP TOGETHER, UNTITLED GREY’S ANATOMY SPINOFF and ALEX, INC.
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 THE GOOD DOCTOR
TUESDAY
8 pm The Middle
8:30 pm Fresh off the Boat (new timeslot)
9 pm black-ish (new timeslot)
9:30 pm THE MAYOR (WATCH TRAILER)
10 pm THE GOSPEL OF KEVIN (WATCH TRAILER)
WEDNESDAY
8 pm The Goldbergs
8:30 pm Speechless
9 pm Modern Family
9:30 pm American Housewife (new time slot)
10 pm Designated Survivor
THURSDAY
8 pm Grey’s Anatomy
9 pm Scandal
10 pm How to Get Away With Murder
FRIDAY
8 pm Once Upon a Time (new time slot)
9 pm MARVEL’S INHUMANS
10 pm 20/20
SATURDAY
Saturday Night Football
SUNDAY
7 pm America’s Funniest Home Videos
8 pm To Tell the Truth
9 pm Shark Tank (new timeslot)
10 pm TEN DAYS IN THE VALLEY (WATCH TRAILER)
NOT RETURNING NEXT SEASON: The Catch, Conviction, Dr. Ken, Imaginary Mary, Last Man Standing, Mistresses, Notorious, The Real O’Neals, Secrets & Lies and Time After Time
Terrible timeslot for Inhumans… they should have given it Shield’s slot.
I also feel it’s where SHIELD will slot once the 8 eps for Inhumans are done!
I think ABC should go back to making movies for they’re Sunday night programming they were the best I still think of “Cinderella,” “Brown vs. the Board of Education” those were great movies and very educational. Just saying. Don’t know how I feel about “Black-ish” moving, I hope it’s a good one.
i see in the lineup that ABC is still having a problem with their Monday slot at 10pm.
This will be an ongoing problem for some time because the audience they once had at that time-mainly Castle viewers for 8 years doesn’t bother with ABC any longer. ABC still continues to struggle because they lost a lot of fandom at that time. Feel bad for those who lost their fav programs however, I’m not surprised.
yeah I miss the good old days when ABC aired movies on sunday night. But I don’t really see Iger doing intros like Eisner did.
Don’t like you Friday night shows are off, and black-ish moved is very disappointed
It is where Shield will slot after Inhumans has its run.
I think we’ve found our Blind Item of the show the network thinks sucks.
Well if you look at the stills for the show, it’s pretty telling…
I mean after that promo picture came out. We all knew it would. Im guessing Disney force ABC network head hand to put it on the schedule
Fridays? Ouch.
I guess the Friday Once slot is the final nail in the proverbial coffin. I don’t like the Black-ish move.
Sunday night has been a landmark for ONCE. Why mess that up.
They’re moving it to the coma night for a reason (Saturday being the morgue night) – Final season.
Yep. They’re killing it and Agents of SHIELD in one fell swoop.
Will Time After Time air its remaining episodes at any point?
Keep an eye on your TV listings over the summer. They may get a burn-off. August is the usual time for burn-offs.
Its on Amazon Prime if you are interested.
No shield in fall?? And inhumans on Friday?! Man it must be bad. I’m guessing that’s the blind item answer from a couple weeks back about a really bad pilot.
Exactly what I was thinking!
The blind item was about a bad series that had shot multiple episodes, not about a pilot.
They have shot multiple episodes. At least the two imax ones.
They have only shot the pilot. It does not match the blind item.
It started shooting back in March. It very much fits the blind item.
Yep!
I guess they were having trouble getting it to be PC and think no one will watch on Friday.
They’re launching Inhumans of Fridays at 9? After the big IMAX launch, that’s not a good sign.
Like NBC and Fox before them, ABC has delivered one of its most confounding schedules in recent history.
I would take FOX any day over ABC.
Friday, where shows go to die.
In many cases, yes, but some survive and even thrive on Fridays. Supernatural (which can make it any time slot apparently), Grimm, and Blue Bloods are Friday success stories that come to mind. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend survived it’s Friday slot this season too, though with very low ratings. Still, it got renewed!
I’m bummed about Once’a move to Friday because I work many Friday nights and will rarely be able to watch it live.
Yeah the move to Friday screams final season for OUAT. I loved the show, good and bad, and the twist with adult Henry intrigues, but maybe they really should have just ended things this season.
I’m guessing Agents of SHIELD will probably move to midseason on Fridays after that new Marvel Inhumans show finishes its first season. Probably final season for it as well.
I am disappointed that Agents of Shield will be bumped to mid season. Why not do Inhumans during their winter break that they usually take? And Once to Fridays? They must not be that into the seventh season re boot.
My guess is that AoS has been renewed for a shortened final season. Perhaps 12 episodes to get it to 100.
Or, read above. (22)
So Matt, does that mean we are likely looking at a consistent little to no break run for AoS once it starts or are they going to insert breaks so it runs straight into the summer?
Assuming Inhumans runs uninterrupted, one hour episode per week, it wil, end Nov. 10, and SHIELD can begin the next week, and get out about four or five episodes, maybe even six if Inhumans has a two hour premiere, all before New Years. Hell, they could get more out if they keep airing Thanksgiving weekend and Christmas and New Years weekends. They don’t typically preempt Friday programming like they do their other days.
So are they rebranding to “White Wednesdays”. I still think they should have moved Fresh off the Boat after Goldbergs and then they could have had families of the 80’s 90’s and today.
Looks like. I knew they’d put The Mayor after their only black starring comedy, but at least ABC *has* a black comedy.
Two.
LOL…I totally thought the same thing.
Good point — I think Goldbergs and FOTB would’ve made a great pair, and then I would’ve liked ‘Speechless’ to get the post-‘Middle’ slot. :)
Looks pretty obvious that Idol will go to Sundays.
Fridays @ 9PM are starting to get interesting. Taken, The Exorcist, and Inhumans.
So Once moving to friday evening is no good sign then? (seriously asking. I have no clue about american television times as I am german and I know some slots are considered “death slots”…)
Fridays are considered low viewing nights, so actual numbers may seem disappointing. Usually Friday shows get more leeway because of this. ABC’s Friday doesn’t have much cohesion though. Once, Inhumans, 20/20 spans all demographic groups and the competition is heating up there.
Thanks for that 🙂
the ‘Friday death slot’ is so confusing for Europeans because here, Fridays and Saturdays are the most watched nights
Opposite here in the states. Saturday is the worst night and is dominated by College Football and any kind of sports or repeats. Then there is Friday, which has low viewership, but original content. This used to be filled with shows in the burn-off category, but CBS changed that years ago. Then there is Sunday, dominated by cable and football (NFL) over runs. A Deadly place to be for broadcast, especially CBS @10. Elementary has been sacrifced at this spot, mainly because of it’s syndication deal and International viewership.
Friday is also high school football season. So, many people are out rooting for their team.
That’s my situation.
That’s kinda crazy that rugby, sorry… football 😏 has so much influence.
Some Americans live and breathe football. :-)
So do a hell of a lot of people in England 🙈
Just a different kind of “football”
RIP OUAT. Why give it a seventh season when you’re just gonna put it in the ‘death slot’?
I wonder if they went to the actors and said we are getting a seventh season its on a Friday at 8 are you in no wonder so many went no way….
Most of the actors didn’t leave by their own choosing.
Probably closure, they said it’s important to them and they’d give it a proper ending for the fans when the time came. That and apparently they’re making big bucks from Netflix for a seventh season (8 figures)
Where did you hear there making 8 figures for a seventh season from Netflix ? That seems crazy high.
If they wanted closure, the season 6 finale that aired two days ago certainly would have sufficed as a series finale.
Death slot would be Saturday. Friday is the coma slot.
Scandal vs. This is Us (NBC) in the 9 pm Thursday night time slot is going to be very competitive. Bummed that both Agents of SHIELD and Quantico won’t be back until mid-season.
As someone who loves both shows, and Scandal being in the final season next year, I hope TIU wins the slot.
NBC is smart moving This is Us to Thursdays. It is going to break into ABC and CBS’s nomination of the night. Scandal is declining and people are getting board with it. Also the Scandal cast seems board with the material they have been given and they are phoning it in.
Not trying to be the grammar police or anything but I think you mean “bored”…although your last sentence made me chuckle because the Scandal cast does seem very wooden lately.
What about domination instead of nomination. :-)
A new show on Tues @10? High-risk.
God, I didn’t even think of that … that is THE death slot. Maybe this is the one to break the “curse”?
That Sunday schedule is awful. Only one scripted series and not until 10 PM? See you later ABC.
Wow only 2 shows to watch on ABC , DWTS and the 10 Days in Valley,maybe look at Gospel of Kevin…ABC and ESPN dying a slow death
ABC has been dying a slow death for some time. They just don’t know it yet. When they changed head runners at ABC programming went downwards. They just don’t know it yet.
What happened to the Reba/Marc Cherry show???
Got cancelled. ABC cancelled a lot of sitcoms in order to make room for 3 nights of idol per week………
God help us. Why are they bringing back that glorified karaoke contest? Let it die already!!!! Spend money on new shows, not ones that have lived long past their usefulness.
Even in its heyday, Idol rarely aired 3 nights a week, and I don’t foresee ABC going that route.
Shark Tank to SUNDAY???? WHYYYYYYYYYY?? Dumb.
black-ish to Tuesday?? That works!
Seems like their faith in AoS and INHUMANS isn’t so strong.
I’m guessing they moved Shark Tank to Sunday so they’ve got 2 straight hours of game/reality shows that they can easily replace with American Idol when it returns.
A-Rod on Shark Tank might be considered comedy, though!
I hope Idol flops bigly!
IDOL’s worst season would be ABC’s #2 show.
With all due respect, I understand the ratings aspect of it but it seems like ABC, like fox before it, will use this show as a crutch. Don’t you think 40 hours of Idol is too much? I do.
Why did they move American Housewife? Frankie and Katie were a great match on Tuesdays back to back.
They are trying to give it a stronger lead-in.
Hope Inhumans does well on Friday nights. Smart putting The Good Doctor after Dancing With The Stars. Interesting Once Upon a Time will be on Fridays now. Sucks that Agents of Shield’s next season won’t premiere until next year. It’s gonna be a long wait for Season 5 of the show after season finale tonight.
Could be The Good Doctor could be in trouble in that time slot.
people say that fridays are where show goes to die I beg differ look at hawai five 0 MacGyver Ble Bloods they survive hell even Supernatural and smallville survive Friday nights death slots
Fridays are not as awful as they used to be. CBS proved that people will tune in especially in the Fall. Other networks are noticing and are scheduling against them, NBC especially. This night is getting very competitive.
But notice, those shows are all on CBS and all cater to older audiences (as does the entire CBS network, generally speaking.) ~~Typically~~ older viewers will stay home on Friday nights, thus improving the ratings of any shows on Friday nights that can cater towards them. Whereas any show not directly targeted towards older demographics (i.e. the “coveted” 18-49 demo) being put on a Friday means it’s chances of being watched are slim, as ~~typically~~ most “young folks” aren’t staying in watching TV on Friday nights.
People like to parrot cliches and make themselves think they’re smart. Last Man Standing ran FIVE YEARS after moving to Fridays. Hawaii Five-0’s been there forever, and how many years did “Numb3rs” go?
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I miss Numb3rs
ABC itself though has a history of moving shows to Friday before cancelling them. Most only last a season, others are moved to Friday nights for what ends up being their last season when the previous season disappoints in the ratings. Case in point; 8 Simple Rules, Ugly Betty, Happy Endings, The Neighbors. And CBS having such a strong Friday night lineup is why it’s still considered the Friday night deathslot, because of the competition. Just like when ABC had the TGIF lineup, any show against it failed and that’s why it became known as the Friday night deathslot. Fun Fact*
I guess if they only have Colin O’Donoghue guaranteed one more season (people like him) then they are winding down Once anyway.
Anyone know if RC & LP only signed for one more when the renewed?
I think you’ve just summed up the internet generally.
Ha. Quantico got push to midseason.