This week on the ABC Renew/Cancel, the situation gets much more dire for one show, as five series are handed very good news. Plus, two shows advance to the championship match of the ABC Renew/Cancel March Madness!
Certain Cancellation:
N/A
Likely Cancellation:
Doctor Odyssey (0.27, 0.22-0.40)
Leans Cancellation:
N/A
Leans Renewal:
N/A
Already Ending:
The Conners
Already Renewed:
9-1-1
Abbott Elementary
Grey's Anatomy
High Potential
The Rookie
Shifting Gears
Will Trent
9-1-1, Grey's Anatomy, The Rookie, Shifting Gears and Will Trent: Leading off this week's Renew/Cancel is a bit of housekeeping. Five of ABC's six scripted shows awaiting their fates were renewed last season. None of the renewals were abnormal - no final seasons here, and no multi-season renewals. All five are correct predictions, and barring anything unexpected in the coming months, all five will be back to predict next season.
Doctor Odyssey: And that brings us to the one show remaining: Doctor Odyssey. It's never a good sign when a show is left as the one and only show on the network waiting for a renewal, especially when said show is in its first season and is fully owned by the network, so there shouldn't be any tense negotiations with other studios or with the cast for contractural negotiations. No, Doctor Odyssey has absolutely no reason not to be renewed by now, aside from the fact that has now become plainly obvious: it's getting canceled. It's ABC's lowest-rated show in multiplatform ratings, and it has very poor retention from 9-1-1, so this is not exactly a shocking development. Still, the show did look like it had at least somewhat of a chance before these renewals, considering how hard they were still pushing it, and how its ratings had finally stabilized a bit. It does technically have another month or so before ABC needs to make a decision on it, so if they genuinely are still undecided on what to do with it, it has another month to prove itself. However, I don't see any reason to expect that it'll do that. Its most recent episode was nearly a series low in linear ratings, and it appears to be weakening a bit in mutliplatform ratings, remaining their lowest-rated show (with the likely exception of the already-ending The Conners, which hasn't had any multiplatform ratings announced yet, but seems to be a far weaker streaming player than Odyssey, and was a slightly lower performer in L+7 for the week of its return). With all of ABC's veteran dramas renewed this season, High Potential also renewed, and a new 9-1-1 spinoff already ordered to series, a Doctor Odyssey renewal would require ABC to expand scripted hours next season. That isn't impossible, considering how many hours of their lineup were taken up by filler this year, but it doesn't seem too likely. The network seems content with their "Hulu on ABC" strategy, with ABC president Craig Erwich praising it in a recent interview, and it's hard to imagine the expensive Odyssey, down to 0.2s behind a strong 9-1-1 lead-in, doing all that much better in L+SD than filler like Pyramid or What Would You Do, both produced for a small fraction of the price. Doctor Odyssey simply appears to have been replaced by a different Ryan Murphy series, one ABC surely hopes will perform better. It's downgraded to a LIKELY CANCELLATION this week, and I really struggle to see any argument for its renewal at this stage. Time to look for the lifeboats, this ship is going down.
ABC Renew/Cancel March Madness continues!
| The TV Ratings Guide | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | 10:00 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | American Idol | Paradise | ||||
| Tues | Will Trent | The Rookie | Bad Romance | |||
| Wed | The Conners | Abbott Elementary | Celebrity Jeopardy! | What Would You Do? | ||
| Thurs | 9-1-1 | Doctor Odyssey | Grey's Anatomy | |||
| Fri | Shark Tank | 20/20 | ||||
| Sun | American Idol | The $100,000 Pyramid | ||||
