Fourth-Place ABC Starting A Dozen New Shows For Next Year

Mired in fourth place this year, ABC is looking for big changes with 12 new series this season.

The network is down 5% to a 2.1 rating versus a year ago in live plus seven days of time-shifted viewing, after 33 weeks of the 2013-2014 season.

Beginning in the fall, ABC will start up five new comedies and one new drama, and is placing a strong focus on rebuilding Tuesday night around its "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", which started off strong a year ago but has since cooled. 

Two new comedies will start off the night: “Selfie,” about a lonely single woman blogger looking to revamp her life at 8 p.m. and “Manhattan Love Story,” a romantic comedy about a couple that explores their unfiltered and sometimes contradictory thoughts, at 8:30 p.m.

“We are going to be the only network doing comedy [on that night]” says Paul Lee, president of ABC Entertainment Group, during a press conference.

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At 9 p.m. comes “S.H.I.E.L.D.”, which is followed by “Forever,” a new fantasy series about a star medical examiner who explores his immortality, at 10 p.m.

Wednesday will get the addition of “Black-ish” at 9:30 p.m., which ABC says is about a black family moving to the suburbs. The network, in its description of the show, asks: “Has success brought too much assimilation for this black family?”

ABC’s high-flying “Scandal,” now at 9 p.m. on Thursday (previously 10 p.m.) will look to launch new drama “How to Get Away with Murder” at 10 p.m. It stars Viola Davis at a law professor who becomes entangled with some of her law students. “Grey’s Anatomy” now moves to 8 p.m. after its long run at 9 p.m. on Thurdays

Although ratings numbers tell one story, Lee says viewers are “passionate” about many ABC shows -- especially its dramas like “Scandal,” “Once Upon a Time," “Resurrection,” and “Revenge.”

“Cristela” is a new 8:30 comedy for Friday about an ambitious young female law intern from a traditional Mexican-American family. Lee notes that with the likes of “Shark Tank,” ABC remains the leading network on Friday.

Other shows that will air in the coming season:

“Marvel’s Agent Carter,” set in 1946, explores the life of a single woman who is a covert agent in post-World War 2 America. “American Crime” follows the after-effects in a community after a vicious attack on a young married couple in California where the husband is killed.

“Secrets and Lies” shows how one good Samaritan turns into a murder suspect after he discovers the body of his neighbor's young son in the woods. ”The Whispers” is about aliens invading the Earth using children as a resource to achieve world domination. Lee says this is more “E.T.” than, say, “Poltergeist.”

“Fresh Off the Boat” examines the life of an 11-year old Asian-American boy and his family in the 1990s, and their move to suburban Orlando. “Galavant” is a musical comedy fairy tale.

Lee says many of these new shows will work into the schedule via “split”  seasons of older veteran shows -- a practice that ABC and other networks have used in the past where shows get periodic breaks throughout the season.

ABC FALL 2014 SCHEDULE

(New programs in CAPS. All Times ET)

MONDAY

8:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars”

10:00 p.m.“Castle”

TUESDAY

8:00 p.m.“SELFIE”

8:30 p.m.“MANHATTAN LOVE STORY”

9:00 p.m.“Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”

10:00 p.m.“FOREVER”


WEDNESDAY

8:00 p.m. “The Middle”

8:30 p.m. “The Goldbergs”

9:00 p.m. “Modern Family”

9:30 p.m. “BLACK-ISH”

10:00 p.m. “Nashville”

THURSDAY

8:00 p.m. “Grey’s Anatomy”

9:00 p.m. “Scandal”

10:00 p.m. “HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER”

FRIDAY

8:00 p.m. “Last Man Standing”

8:30 p.m. “CRISTELA”

9:00 p.m. “Shark Tank”

10:00 p.m. “20/20”

SATURDAY

8:00 p.m. “Saturday Night Football”

SUNDAY

7:00 p.m. “America’s Funniest Home Videos”

8:00 p.m. “Once Upon a Time”

9:00 p.m. “Resurrection”

10:00 p.m. “Revenge”

1 comment about "Fourth-Place ABC Starting A Dozen New Shows For Next Year".
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  1. Pamela Noga from WJMN-TV3, May 14, 2014 at 8:38 a.m.

    Well ... that ought to do it; keep ABC in 4th place I mean.

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