• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, 11 hours ago

ABC is creating an all-detective Tuesday with the arrival of a new addition to its growing stable of self-styled sleuths.

When the newbie joins the Tuesday lineup this week, it will get a boost from ABC’s two other detective shows already in progress that the network characterizes as bona fide hits.

The new P.I. in town is a man named R.J. Decker (played by Scott Speedman, above photo). He is a Florida man, who goes to prison for 18 months for a crime he says was a set-up.

Before this incident, he was a photographer for a local newspaper. Now newly released from prison, he cannot get regular work, so he gravitates toward the detective trade, from which he barely ekes out a living.

The show, “R.J. Decker,” will take up residence in the 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. (Eastern) time period Tuesdays on ABC following “High Potential” at 9 p.m. and “Will Trent” at 8.

In “Will Trent,” the titular character (played by Ramón Rodríguez) is a detective with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation who approaches his cases with a point of view unlike any of his peers. The show started its fourth season in January.

In “High Potential,” Kaitlin Olsen plays an outspoken single mother working as a cleaning lady who turns out to have a special talent for detective work. The show’s second season started last September.

In “R.J. Decker," the title character plies his trade in Fort Lauderdale, where he lives in a trailer park until his home topples into a sinkhole and he ends up moving into a casita in his ex-wife’s backyard.

Episode One opens with one of the stupidest scenes of gratuitous, completely improbable sex that the TV Blog has ever beheld on television, and that’s saying a lot.

The scene made no sense, although one of the participants in the tryst makes an unsuccessful attempt to explain it later in the show. 

The good news is, great entertainment awaits those who stick around after this scene comes to a merciful end. 

ABC is positioning P.I. Decker in its marketing and promotion materials as “Private Eye, Public Mess.”

But although his life is hitting some snags at the present time, his “mess” does not exactly play out in embarrassing public incidents.

His misfortunes are more or less kept to a minimum in the show. Instead, the show is really about his innate detective skills and his doggedness in applying them.

In addition, he enjoys warm relationships with his ex-wife, her wife (who is a police detective) and a former cellmate who owns a local watering hole. 

When P.I. Decker is down on his luck, they all provide a warm support system for the simple reason that he is not a jerk. He is a likable, loyal and resourceful person to know.

His family and friends are rooting for him. And so will ABC’s growing audience of detective fans.

“R.J. Decker” premieres Tuesday, March 3, at 10 p.m. Eastern on ABC, streaming next day on Hulu.