ABC has picked up new seasons of “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal” and “How To Get Away With Murder.” The early triple-renewal comes as ABC’s TGIT back-to-back-to-back lineup has won Thursday night for three weeks in a row among Adults 18-49. (Last night, TGIT reigned with “Grey’s” bringing in 8.43 million viewers, “Scandal” with 6.24 million viewers and “HTGAWM” with 4.92 million.)
“’Grey’s Anatomy,’ ‘Scandal’ and ‘How to Get Away with Murder’ continue to keep viewers on the edge of their seats and wanting more. I’m thrilled to bring back these shows and the OMG moments that come with them,” said Channing Dungey, president, ABC Entertainment.
For the 2017-2018 season, “Grey’s” will return for an impressive fourteenth season, “Scandal” for its seventh and “How To Get Away With Murder” with its fourth. All three shows hail from ABC Studios, and are executive produced by Shondaland’s Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers. “HTGAWM” is created by Pete Nowalk.
Though all shows have been renewed, no word yet on whether they’ll be scheduled together as a TGIT night next TV season — however, there is plenty of Shondaland programming to go around. “The Catch” returns with its second season after “Murder” wraps up this winter and a new untitled Romeo and Juliet-inspired series has yet to debut, though likely will not until either summer or next season. Also in the works is a legal drama from Shondaland writer Paul Davies, which is hot on ABC’s pilot list. Should that series go forward and should “Catch” nab a third season renewal, Shondaland could have six shows on air at ABC, though they’d be staggered throughout the year.
Speaking to Variety earlier this week before the renewals were made official, ABC prez Dungey said “it’s a little unclear” whether the Thursday night TGIT lineup would return for 2017-2018.
“We’ve been extremely pleased with the way that TGIT came back in January. It’s terrific to have ‘Scandal’ back on the air and ‘HTGAWM’ is working towards an amazing season finale and we look forward to having ‘The Catch’ on,” Dungey said. “So what will happen next season, I think will depend on a whole number of things, including how we end up feeling about the Paul Davies law show…we’re super excited, and this one feels very on-brand, so I could easily see it as part of TGIT, but it can also stand on its own.”
