ABC hopes ‘Mixed-ish’ stirs it up
Networks looks to rebuild with its fall schedule.
NEW YORK – ABC unveiled its fall schedule to advertisers at Lincoln Center Tuesday, along with presentations by Disney’s sibling cable networks ESPN, Freeform, FX and National Geographic. Among the highlights:
‘Black-ish’ spinoff
Just three new scripted series will be added this fall, echoing conservative schedules announced Monday by NBC and Fox. On tap: “Mixed-ish,” the second spinoff of “Black-ish,“starring Arica Himmel as a young Rainbow Johnson, the “Black-ish” mother played by Tracee Ellis Ross in that series, as a child in a mixed-race 1980s family.
“Emergence,” starring Allison Tolman (“Fargo,” “Downward Dog”) as a police chief who takes in a young child she finds near the site of a mysterious accident who has no memory of what happened. In investigating the accident, she finds a vast conspiracy surrounding the child’s identity.
Cobie Smulders gets a series
“Stumptown,” based on the graphic novel series, follows “a strong, assertive and sharp-witted army veteran-turnedprivate investigator in Portland, Oregon
(Cobie Smulders, “How I Met Your Mother”) with a complicated love life, gambling debt and a brother to take care of.
‘Kids Say the Darndest Things’
ABC is reviving “Kids Say the Darndest Things,” a reality show in which Bill Cosby, from 1998-2000, amused CBS viewers with his interactions with precocious kids. Now Tiffany Haddish will take the reins as host and executive producer for in-studio and remote segments
What’s back ... and not
including “Best Carpool Ever,” in which she drives a minivan full of kids; and “Granny Tiff,” when, dressed in prosthetics as an older woman, she gets technology tips from youngsters. “American Idol” will be back for a third season in 2020 on ABC. So will “Grey’s Anatomy” firefighter spinoff “Station 19.” But nearly all other returning shows will air in the fall. And “The Conners” likely will do a full season of episodes, potentially doubling the 11 it aired this season.
On the cancellation heap: Freshmen series “The Fix,” “The Kids Are Alright,” “Splitting Up Together” and “Whiskey Cavalier,” along with Shonda Rhimes’ legal soap “For the People” and “Speechless.”
What’s coming midseason
Coming later next season: Family comedy “United We Fall;” “For Life,” a fictionalized version of Isaac Wright Jr.’s life, about a prisoner-turned-lawyer, and “The Baker and the Beauty,” about a Cuban-American in Miami who meets an “international superstar and fashion mogul.”
ABC is rebuilding
ABC’s average TV audience this season is 5.7 million viewers, down 7% from last year, according to Nielsen, ranking third among broadcast networks. Among adults ages 18 to 49, it’s averaging 1.6 million, down 15%, ranking fourth. But ABC says it places second, behind NBC, when counting only entertainment programming.