Certain Cancellation:
Promised Land (Canceled 2/15)
Likely Cancellation:
Queens (Canceled 5/6)
Leans Cancellation:
N/A
Leans Renewal:
A Million Little Things (Renewed 5/13)
Big Sky (Renewed 5/13)
Home Economics (Renewed 5/13)
The Wonder Years (Renewed 5/13)
Abbott Elementary: Already renewed ahead of last week. A hit for me.
Big Sky: In last week's final predictive column of the season, I called Big Sky one of broadcast TV's biggest flops. I stand by that assessment. However, ABC's treatment of the show was enough for me to see it as a more likely renewal than a cancellation, even though I did briefly waver on that assessment. Whether it retains the Grey's Anatomy lead-in next season or not remains to be seen, but ABC does seem to be nurturing the show, having added multiple high-profile actors to the cast for season three. This was a hit for me, and predicting it next season should be quite interesting.
The Conners: The only ABC show to have its fate looming over it last week and genuinely deserve a renewal, The Conners was easily the prediction I was most confident in. While there was always a chance that cast deals could fall through, or that ABC could decide the expenses weren't worth it, this was an obvious renewal and a hit for me.
The Goldbergs: Also renewed ahead of last week, this was a hit for me.
The Good Doctor: Another show renewed before last week. Also a hit.
Grey's Anatomy: Already renewed ahead of last week. A hit.
Home Economics: While I thought this show was a goner early on in the season, I gained a more positive outlook on it following its back-nine pickup, and started to expect a renewal for it following a string of episodes in which its retention from The Conners looked acceptable. While the show has faded a bit recently, it did still end up pulling off that renewal, the second season in a row where I had a late-in-the-game change of heart on the show and ended up with a hit.
A Million Little Things: The low-rated veteran ABC drama that I always envisioned as being on the bubble this season was a season-long struggle to predict, and I frequently went back and forth on it before ultimately settling on a very unconfident renewal prediction after the show returned from hiatus. I stuck with that prediction through the season and got another hit, though I did have some serious doubts about it between the day I made my final ABC predictions and the day ABC announced its renewal. This is likely the last time this show will be on the bubble, as it seems nearly guaranteed to wrap things up next season.
Promised Land: Pulled from the schedule and canceled ahead of last week. A hit for this column.
Queens: This show was canceled before last week, the final show with its fate announced ahead of the traditional pre-Upfronts "news week." Hit.
The Rookie: Yet another show renewed ahead of last week. A hit for me.
Station 19: Also renewed before last week. A hit for me.
The Wonder Years: ABC has always had a lot of confidence in this show, even if it's pretty unwarranted, based on the first-run ratings. Renewal looked pretty likely early in the run, but between fading ratings and the smashing success of Abbott Elementary, things looked less wonderful for The Wonder Years. Still, ABC continued to promote it heavily and treat it well, and I remained cautiously optimistic that it would join shows like Home Economics and Mixed-ish as a low-rated ABC comedy that got a second chance in spite of its ratings. That was right, and this was a hit for me.
Conclusion:
All in all, despite a lot of second-guessing I'm glad I trusted my predictions and guessed that ABC would renew all of its bubble shows. While ABC is known for canceling a lot of shows during news week, they didn't cancel anything this year, allowing me to get a perfect 13-0 record this season, my first season without a miss since I began my ABC column. While I have serious doubts about how this works out for ABC, ratings-wise, I will say that it's nice for the cast, crew and fans of these ABC shows to not have to go through the level of cancellations we've seen in the past, especially in light of what we've seen go on this year over at The CW. I'll be back again next season to see if I can replicate my perfect prediction record this season.
What do you think of this news? What ABC renewals are you most excited about? Let me know in the comments and vote in the poll of the week!
