Here is some encouraging news in the ongoing industry contraction amid the gloom-and-doom predictions about the broadcast business: ABC is poised to expand its original scripted portfolio for a second year in a row.
That is because the network appears likely to pick up at least one of its two pilots while also renewing all of its current scripted series.
RELATED: 2026-27 ABC Pilot Orders
Looking promising for a series order is The Rookie spinoff pilot The Rookie: North, starring Jay Ellis. ABC took a different route with the project from The Rookie creator/executive producer Alexi Hawley than it did with spinoff The Rookie: Feds, which originated as a two-episode arc on the original series that served as a backdoor pilot. The Rookie: North, which moves the concept of a patrol show with a middle-aged rookie cop to the rural forest of Pierce County, produced a standalone pilot, which was filmed in February and recently was delivered to ABC.
I hear the pilot has been well received at network screenings, with conversations about its future ongoing.
RELATED: ‘The Rookie’ Renewed For Season 9: How Young Appeal, Lean Production & CA Tax Credit Helped Series Become ABC’s 3rd Longest-Running Drama
Hawley referenced the positive feedback in an interview with Deadline about the Season 9 renewal of The Rookie.
“The pilot came out great,” he said. “The network seems super-happy with it. You never know until you know, but we have a really amazing cast led by Jay Ellis, who’s a star; it was a joy to make that with him and the rest of them. You know me, I’m just an optimistic person in general, so I’m hopeful and optimistic that we could be talking about that in the near future.”
While The Rookie: North is looking good, reaction to ABC’s comedy pilot, the Sliding Doors-style Do You Want Kids?, co-written by and starring Rachel Bloom, has been more mixed. The pickup odds of the single-camera project, which follows a married couple (Bloom, Rory Scovel) who in one universe have a baby and in the other do not, are considered 50-50.
Co-created and executive produced by married duo Bloom and Dan Gregor, Do You Want Kids? is from 20th Television; The Rookie: North is produced by Lionsgate Television in association with 20th TV.
Even if only one of them is picked up to series, ABC has a very good chance of having one more scripted series on the 2026-27 schedule than it had on the 2025-26 one.
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As Deadline noted in the 2026 ABC renewal report, the network had been on track to bring back all of its current scripted shows. That includes the last remaining returning series that has not been renewed, multi-camera comedy Shifting Gears, which is getting a third season, as well as hot comedy “newcomer” Scrubs, with new procedural R.J. Decker starring Scott Speedman also trending in the right direction toward a likely pickup.
Last year, ABC added three new scripted series for the 2025-26 season, the drama 9-1-1: Nashville — already renewed for 2026-27 — R.J. Decker and the Scrubs revival, while not returning two, drama Doctor Odyssey and comedy The Conners, making for a net gain of one drama.
That might be the case again with The Rookie: North as the net 2026-27 addition. But we don’t live in the boom time of the 1990s and 2000s, when broadcast was printing money. So, to accommodate an extra (likely drama) scripted series and stay within budget, ABC might trim the orders of some returning shows. Still, the upside of a pickup should outweigh the downside of small episode reductions as a full cast of actors, a room of writers and a crew would gain employment.
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Also, with all the turmoil surrounding The Bachelor franchise, who knows — a reality spot might open up for next season, freeing up some cash in the programming budget…
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