New seasons of “Dancing With the Stars” and the “Scrubs” revival will lead ABC’s fall slate as the network’s top-rated series, “High Potential,” holds until midseason.
While the Kaitlin Olson-led series recently found its new showrunners in Nora and Lilla Zuckerman, the delay for Season 3 isn’t creatively-driven, according to ABC SVP of content strategy and scheduling Ari Goldman. Instead, the move enables the network to utilize the post-“Dancing With the Stars” timeslot on Tuesday to provide a solid launching pad for sophomore series “RJ Decker.”
“We do want to keep using that launch pad of ‘Dancing with the Stars’ to get some new content off the ground,” Goldman told TheWrap, noting “High Potential” “didn’t necessarily need the lead-in support.” “With ‘High Potential’ and the really dominant success that it’s enjoyed, we have no real concern about the audience not making the journey over to midseason to follow the show.”
“High Potential” will debut midseason alongside “The Rookie” and its Jay Ellis-led spinoff “The Rookie: North,” as well as comedy “Shifting Gears,” drama “Will Trent,” and unscripted staples “The Bachelor” and “Bachelor in Paradise.”
Goldman isn’t concerned about not having ratings leader “High Potential” on the fall schedule, touting the “rarest of lead-ins in all television right now” with “Dancing With the Stars,” which he noted soared nearly 80% in the demo last season. The network is hoping to continue that growth into the 2026-27 season with buzzy recruits like “Summer House” star Ciara Miller and “The Traitors” star Maura Higgins.
“The team has innovated immensely in the social media space, both from a casting perspective and a lot of the social and marketing tactics involved with the show — I think you’re going to see the same type of approach this season with the amazing work that’s been done on TikTok and across social platforms,” Goldman said, also pointing to innovation in the podcast space. “The margin now between ‘Dancing with the Stars’ and the nearest entertainment titles just continues to grow and grow. We’re super excited to see that fresh, engaged audience on ABC and Disney+.”
“Dancing With the Stars” will provide a solid launch pad for “RJ Decker” as it returns after its midseason release, though the series has already passed “High Potential” and “Will Trent” in terms of its launch in the 10 p.m. hour, and will continue to be positioned for success during the summer hours.
Also returning swiftly after its midseason debut is “Scrubs,” whose short midseason run Goldman says has “held up remarkably well across its weeks.” “We’re excited to bring this one back really quickly in the fall and just capitalize on the momentum that we’ve seen on the season,” Goldman said.
“Scrubs” will kick off Wednesdays ahead of “Abbott Elementary,” “Celebrity Jeopardy!” and “Shark Tank.” Thursday’s lineup of “9-1-1,” “9-1-1: Nashville” and “Grey’s Anatomy” will remain untouched. With “Grey’s Anatomy” losing two series regulars, most networks are facing budget cuts that could very well impact episode count.
“We’re always taking a close look at and managing our budgets and our inventory,” Goldman said, while noting ABC has still grown its scripted slate. “Everything that we do here is in service of the creative execution of these shows, making sure that the schedule is introducing audiences to the right content in the right places. That does mean, for some of our series, there will be adjustments to episode counts. But nothing that is particularly, I’d say, austere.”
That said, shows on the Thursdays lineup are “in discussion about their full orders for the year,” with Goldman noting “each of the shows did have a pretty robust length across the season, and I think will be pretty close this coming year.”
One question mark that remains in regards to ABC’s 2026-27 TV season is Taylor Frankie Paul’s season of “The Bachelorette,” which Goldman noted he had no news to share about and pointed to Rob Mills’ comments about taking the process day-by-day.
“There’s certainly a demand, I’m sure out there … we’re not unaware of the social media and the conversation around the show,” Goldman said. “But again, what’s more important at this moment is that these are real people involved in this situation … so again, more to come over time.”
With ABC renewing all of its scripted slate for the upcoming season, Goldman noted it’s first time in ABC’s history, going back to the late 1940s, that the network has renewed every scripted series on the network.
“We have shows that are really resonating across platforms and on the linear schedule, so whether it’s the sort of juggernauts like ‘High Potential’ and ‘The Rookie’ that we’ve told the story about so many times, or the newer entrants to the lineup like ‘RJ Decker’ and ‘9-1-1: Nashville,’ I think we just had a lot to work with going into next year,” Goldman said. “When you think about the events that we have and the marketing opportunities we have to further introduce these shows to more and more people, I think that really got us across the finish line to renewing each of these titles.”
The strength of the renewed series meant the network didn’t have room for Rachel Bloom’s comedy pilot “Do You Want Kids?” Goldman pointed to the network’s existing comedy slate, noting “we really just did not have the real estate for the show this year.”
ABC embraces a year-round development cycle, different than NBC’s push to bring pilot season back, which the network is sticking to for the moment. “I think our schedule is just performing so well and is so packed with content that I think we have to just wait and see if that approach changes.”
While the 2025-26 TV season saw NBC take the ratings crown from CBS for the first time since the 2007-08 season due to Legendary February with the Super Bowl and the Olympics, Goldman is focused on the milestones on the entertainment side, noting ABC is “the only network to grow year over year in total viewers,” which he said is a “major testament to the strength of our scripted slate.”
That said, ABC will benefit from broadcasting the Super Bowl, the Grammys, the Oscars and the college football playoff championship next year.
See ABC’s full fall schedule below.
Monday:
- 8:00 p.m. – ESPN’s “Monday Night Football”
Tuesday:
- 8:00 p.m. – “Dancing with the Stars”
- 10:00 p.m. – “R.J. Decker”
Wednesday:
- 8:00 p.m. – “Scrubs”
- 8:30 p.m. – “Abbott Elementary”
- 9:00 p.m. – “Celebrity Jeopardy!”
- 10:00 p.m. – “Shark Tank”
Thursday:
- 8:00 p.m. – “9-1-1”
- 9:00 p.m. – “9-1-1: Nashville”
- 10:00 p.m. – “Grey’s Anatomy”
Friday:
- 8:00 p.m. – “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune”
- 9:00 p.m. – “20/20” (two hours)
Saturday:
- 7:30 p.m. – College Football
Sunday:
- 7:00 p.m. – “America’s Funniest Home Videos”
- 8:00 p.m. – “The Wonderful World of Disney”