ABC Franchise Strategy – Deadline

Drama procedural franchises have confirmed resilient amid declining linear rankings, with CBS’ FBI sequence and NBC’s Chicago and Law & Order dramas topping Live+Same Day rankings throughout premiere week.

ABC has had loads of success with flagship drama Grey’s Anatomy and its spinoff Station 19, which have constructed an built-in universe with characters, most notably Jason George, completely transferring from the mothership to the offshoot. Last season, the community took a extra conventional, “franchise” method with considered one of its prime procedurals, cop drama The Rookie, introducing a possible spinoff set in a distinct world, the FBI, as a backdoor pilot. The challenge, The Rookie: Feds, starring Niecy Nash, went to sequence, which simply made its debut.

Now ABC is seeking to the identical with one other hit procedural, medical drama The Good Doctor, which is getting a planted spinoff, The Good Lawyer, airing as an episode later this season. In each circumstances, the creator/developer of the unique sequence, Alexi Hawley (The Rookie) and David Shore (The Good Doctor), co-created the spinoff.

“With The Rookie, I think it was about franchising this incredible property that audiences have grown to love,” Simran Sethi, ABC Entertainment’s EVP Programming and Content Strategy, stated of the Nathan Fillion-starring present. “Those ratings soared 475% over multi platform 35 last season; really, really strong core audience. And I think it’s because of the aspirational tone, it strikes a balance between action and fun, but it’s also really smart, adaptive storytelling. It’s a show that’s in its fifth season, and Alexi Hawley and his team still come up with interesting character permutations and interesting cases that have twists and turns.”

The Rookie simply picked up the place it had left off by way of sturdy rankings efficiency, with its Season 5 premiere leaping greater than 4.5x over its preliminary Live+Same Day Adult 18-49 ranking in Live+7 multi-platform numbers for a delayed-viewing elevate of +361% (1.43 ranking vs. 0.31 ranking), including nearly 5 million viewers to rise to eight.2 million whole viewers.

“Spinning that off and having Rookie: Feds was about talent, with those creators and their ability to tell these kinds of stories, which are wildly entertaining and still talk about issues, and give them a new platform,” Sethi stated. “I think the theme of The Rookie, the theme of reinvention that’s core to the franchise, it’s about the stage of life you’re in and the box you put yourself in or the world puts you in, and how to break out of it. So franchising that show for us was about the popularity of The Rookie, but also because those themes seem so relevant and it felt like it was fertile ground for a new story to tell, which we are very excited with that we see in that show.”

Sethi wouldn’t talk about The Good Lawyer, a authorized offshoot of the The Good Doctor which, like The Rookie/The Rookie: Feds, will swap from a male to a feminine lead, however ABC brass are stated to be excessive on the concept.

The Good Doctor, headlined by Freddie Highmore, simply kicked off its sixth season. Will it hold going subsequent season, doubtlessly operating alongside its offshoot the best way the 2 Rookie sequence are this season?

“That’s not a decision we’ve come to yet,” Sethi stated. “The reason we’re in discussions of spinoffs of particular shows is really rooted in how talented the creative teams are behind it. David Shore is really really talented, and The Good Doctor is a really, really good show. So I think it’s definitely part of our strategy, creating these worlds that can move in-between shows, but it really comes down to the quality of execution of the particular shows and the writing team, if they have another in them.”