ABC announces new 2019-20 fall schedule
Just six new shows for next season; four on fall schedule
Maybe it’s great Disney held its upfront presentation Tuesday touting its newly-acquired 20th Century Fox product and its full control of streaming service Hulu because ABC’s fall lineup isn’t really worth spending a lot of time discussing – because there isn’t much to discuss.
Only four new shows are on the fall schedule out of six overall. ABC officials say it reflects the stability of its schedule – where in reality, the network has been in fourth place for the last five seasons, and will likely remain there next season.
With Mondays unchanged, The Conners lead off Tuesdays followed by Bless This Mess (a sitcom who debuted last month), and leading into the new mixed-ish, a new series from black-ish creator Kenya Barris focusing on the show’s Rainbow Johnson in her pre-teen years. Yes, expect an Everybody Hates Chris/Young Sheldon type of vibe here. Following black-ish is new drama Emergence, about a police superintendent taking in a child who has no recollection of an accident that happened near her.
The only addition to Wednesdays is Stumptown, featuring How I Met Your Mother’s Cobie Smulders as a military veteran returning to Portland, Ore. as a PI with a complicated love life and gambling debts.
Thursdays remains unchanged while American Housewife shifts to Friday, paired with Fresh Off The Boat who still plans to feature Constance Wu with 20/20 filling out the rest of the evening.
Saturdays remain pat with college football (like a gazillion other cable sports networks) and Sundays sees some changes with Kids Say The Darnedest Things with Tiffany Haddish leading out of Funniest Home Videos. Of note is the series is produced by CBS, who aired previous versions with Art Linkletter and Bill Cosby respectively – one of the rare instances of a network producing for another (CBS did so before, producing Caroline In The City for NBC in the 1990s.) Come March, look for American Idol to reclaim the time slot, which was renewed for its third season last week.
Rounding out the evening on Sunday is Shark Tank and a relocated The Rookie, which at this point, should be renamed The Sophomore.
Midseason entries include The Baker And The Beauty, about a Miami baker dating a supermodel (this is a drama, not a comedy); For Life, about a lawyer who winds up behind bars and becomes a lawyer so he can fight for his fellow inmates; and United We Fall, a family-eccentric comedy.
For the entire fall 2019 schedule and detailed descriptions of all new shows, click here.
(Editor’s Note: Due to an editing error, the program description for Stumptown failed to post. It has since been added.)