Ryan Murphy will keep his hold on ABC‘s Thursday 8 PM – 10 PM stretch next season with the first 9-1-1 franchise block in three and a half years, while reality veteran Shark Tank is moving to a new night after 15 seasons on Friday and Sunday. The Golden Bachelor also is back in a new time slot on the network’s fall 2025 schedule, which features one new series, spinoff 9-1-1: Nashville starring Chris O’Donnell.
Here is the schedule, which Craig Erwich, president, Disney Television Group, said is “about maintaining stability.” It does not include two of ABC’s top dramas, The Rookie and Will Trent, slated again for a midseason return alongside High Potential on Tuesday. The fall lineup is followed by analysis — with input from Erwich on benching of The Rookie and Will Trent and moving Shark Tank — and more details about the latest 9-1-1 offshoot.
ABC 2025 FALL PRIMETIME SCHEDULE (all times listed are Eastern/Pacific).
MONDAY
8 PM — ESPN’s Monday Night Football
TUESDAY
8 PM — Dancing with the Stars
10 PM — High Potential
WEDNESDAY
8 PM — Shifting Gears
8:30 PM — Abbott Elementary
9 PM — The Golden Bachelor
10 PM — Shark Tank
THURSDAY
8 PM — 9-1-1
9 PM — 9-1-1: Nashville
10 PM — Grey’s Anatomy
FRIDAY
8 PM — Celebrity Wheel of Fortune
9 PM — 20/20 (two hours)
SATURDAY
7:30 PM — College Football
SUNDAY
7 PM — America’s Funniest Home Videos
8 PM — The Wonderful World of Disney
This season, ABC launched a big breakout hit with High Potential, the network’s most-watched new series in seven years, which ranks as the season’s top broadcast series in multi-platform adult 18-49 ratings. Not looking to mess with what worked so well, ABC is keeping High Potential in the same time slot, Tuesday 10 PM, with the same lead-in, Dancing with the Stars, next fall.
The network has been able to increase High Potential’s episode count by a couple of hours from last season’s 13-episode order, which will stretch its sophomore run into midseason.
“We have so much momentum going with that show, and I actually think it will perform even better next year,” Erwich said, noting the additional exposure High Potential‘s first season has been getting on Hulu as well as ABC though reruns, a strategy the network previously employed with Will Trent to strong ratings results.
Tuesday is one of four consecutive nights (Saturday-Tuesday) left unchanged from last fall, with college/NFL football on Saturday and Monday and America’s Funniest Home Videos and The Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday, the latter featuring the world television premieres of Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3, Elemental, and Avatar: The Way of Water and the broadcast premiere of Wakanda Forever.
Also staying put are Thursday’s bookmarks, Ryan Murphy’s 9-1-1 at 8 PM and Shonda Rhimes’ Grey’s Anatomy at 10 PM, with 9-1-1: Nashville taking over Murphy’s Doctor Odyssey in the hammock 9 PM slot. While off the schedule, the cruise ship medical drama has not been officially canceled, and creative conversations with Murphy about its future are continuing, Erwich said.
The two-hour 9-1-1 block sets up likely crossovers between the mothership and the Nashville-set spinoff. The last time two series in the first responder franchise aired back-to-back was a brief tandem run of 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star on Fox in spring 2022.
The biggest scheduling changes are coming on Wednesday. Back is the 8 PM – 9 PM comedy block ABC introduced this winter with the new Tim Allen sitcom Shifting Gears and Quinta Brunson’s hit Abbott Elementary, the #5 and #2 broadcast series of the season in multi-platform adults 18-49, at 8 PM and 8:30 PM, respectively.
They will be followed by the second installment of The Golden Bachelor, starring former NFL player Mel Owens, which is trying out a new slot after the inaugural season aired hourlong episodes on Thursday at 8 PM during the strike impacted fall 2023, while offshoot The Golden Bachelorette ran 90-episode episodes Wednesday at 8 PM last fall.
Anchoring the night at 10 PM will be veteran reality utility player Shark Tank, moving to Wednesdays for its upcoming 17th season. Except for four episodes in its first season, which aired on Tuesday, Shark Tank‘s original run to date had been confined to two nights, Sunday as well as Friday where the entrepreneurship series has been an 8 PM opener for the past five seasons. (Shark Tank repeats have aired in the Wednesday 10 PM slot off-season.)
Succeeding Shark Tank in the Friday 8 PM hour will be another ABC unscripted utility player, Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, with its first installment emceed by new Wheel of Fortune host Ryan Seacrest.
“We’ve had a lot of different shows on Wednesday nights, many of them quite successful,” Erwich said. “But the theme for us this year was really about stability, I think it’s actually the key to our success year over year. So with Shark Tank, being able to put one show there for the entire year, just felt like it really made sense. And we have this incredible luxury that we’re able to put Celebrity Wheel of Fortune on Fridays at eight.”
At 8 PM, Celebrity Wheel of Fortune will follow the syndicated duo of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, which air in the 7 PM – 8 PM hour on the ABC stations. The network had Celebrity Wheel of Fortune ready to go first but Celebrity Jeopardy! may go into that 8 PM slot too in midseason, Erwich said.
“You’ll see other expressions of Jeopardy on throughout the year on ABC,” he said.
In addition to The Rookie, the #3 broadcast series this season in multi-platform 18-49, Will Trent, and Celebrity Jeopardy!, ABC’s midseason bench includes American Idol, which traditionally launches in January. (The network also has recently ordered drama pilot RJ Decker in midseason consideration.)
Erwich spoke about the decision to again hold Will Trent and The Rookie for midseason.
“Rookie and Will Trent is a repeat of the extraordinarily successful schedule we had last season,” he said. “Will Trent was one of the only broadcast shows that actually grew year over year. I think one of the reasons for that was, when we start in January, we’re able to run all of the episodes straight through, and it creates this kind of momentum.”
Erwich indicated that the two one-hours once again would be headed to Tuesday where they have been airing this midseason, followed by High Potential originals and then repeats at 10 PM. With High Potential producing more episodes next season, the Will Trent, The Rookie and High Potential lineup will remain in originals longer next season.
“And when you bring in High Potential to that Tuesday night, it just creates a powerhouse night. Television, in many ways, is still about nights. People ask, What am I going to watch tonight? And ABC has had so many signature nights of television. Over the last 20 some odd years, it’s been Thursday night — now with Grey’s and 9-1-1 — and Tuesday night has become really a must-see destination night of television for our viewers.”
NEW DRAMA SERIES
9-1-1: NASHVILLE
The newest entry into the franchise, 911: Nashville, is a high-octane procedural about heroic first responders, as well as their family saga of power and glamour set in one of America’s most diverse and dynamic cities. The all-new series stars Chris O’Donnell as Captain Don Sharpe, Jessica Capshaw, LeAnn Rimes and Kimberly Williams-Paisley. 9-1-1: Nashville is produced by 20th Television in association with Ryan Murphy Television. Ryan Murphy, Tim Minear and Rashad Raisani will serve as executive producers and writers, with Chris O’Donnell, Brad Buecker, Brad Falchuk and Angela Bassett also executive producing.
