ABC unveils notably Bachelor-free fall lineup

This news comes via Deadline, which reports that it’s the first time since fall 2019 that there wasn’t some Bachelor series on the network’s fall lineup. (That followed Colton Underwood’s season, though his legal trouble stemming from the series didn’t happen until after that period of time.) “We’ve had to take a look at just managing the franchise properly,” said ABC’s senior vice president of content, strategy and scheduling Ari Goldman. “I think that the usual cadence that we like to find ourselves in is really the flagship series in midseason and then having some summer edition, which we have already locked in on Bachelor In Paradise for next season,” she continued, calling this “more of a return to a steady state.” 

In another move that is both abnormal and a return to normal, ABC is investing in scripted series for its primetime lineup. The network has renewed all of its existing scripted series for “the first time in, literally, the history of ABC,” said Goldman. That being said, High Potential—ABC’s number one series—and Shifting Gears are being held for midseason to join Will Trent and The Rookie, which will likely be paired with its new spin-off, The Rookie: North. Maybe by then, they’ll have figured out how to solve a problem like The Bachelorette.