ABC Wednesday unveiled a fall lineup that includes eight hours of alternative programming, three more than last fall, and two new scripted series.
The schedule includes the first fall season of “The Bachelorette,” a second season of the Jimmy Kimmel-hosted celebrity version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” and a revival of “Supermarket Sweep.”
“The Bachelorette” season featuring Clare Crawley, who was the runner-up in the 2014 season of “The Bachelor,” will air Tuesdays from 8-10 p.m. It had been scheduled to premiere in May, but was postponed due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The Bachelorette” will be airing in the fall for the first time in its 16 seasons. It be the first time since 2007 and the sixth time overall that any entry from “The Bachelor” franchise has aired in the fall.
The 39-year-old Crawley is the oldest Bachelorette in the history of the series, which began in 2003. The previous oldest was Rachel Lindsay, who was 32 when she was the Bachelorette in the show’s 2017 season.
For the fourth consecutive fall, ABC will be airing at least three hours of alternative programming on Sundays opposite NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” which is prime-time television’s most-watched series. “America’s Funniest Home Videos” will air at 7 p.m., as it has since September 2003.
“Supermarket Sweep” will follow at 8 p.m., replacing the “Kids Say the Darndest Things” revival which was canceled after one season. “Supermarket Sweep” will be hosted by “Saturday Night Live” alumna Leslie Jones.
“Supermarket Sweep” originally aired as an ABC daytime series from 1965-67. Revivals aired on cable’s Lifetime network from 1990-95 and on PAX TV from 2000-03.
“Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” will air at 9 p.m. Sundays. Four of its final five episodes of the 2019-20 season were ABC’s most-watched programs for their weeks, while the fifth was second behind the “American Idol” season finale.
ABC’s other fall alternative series are “Dancing with the Stars,” which will air Mondays from 8-10 p.m., and “Shark Tank,” continuing in the 8-9 p.m. Friday time slot it has been in since Feb. 28.
The lone new scripted series on ABC’s fall schedule are “Big Sky,” a thriller created by 11-time Emmy winner David E. Kelley, and the comedy “Call Your Mother,” from the creator of “The New Adventures of Old Christine.”
Kelley, known for writing and producing the legal dramas “L.A. Law” and “The Practice,” the family drama “Picket Fences,” the legal comedy-drama “Ally McBeal” and the miniseries “Big Little Lies,” will write multiple episodes and serve as showrunner in the first season of “Big Sky.”
The series stars Kylie Bunbury and Ryan Phillippe as private detectives Cassie Dewell and Cody Hoyt, who join forces with Hoyt’s estranged wife Jenny (Katheryn Winnick), a former police officer, to search for two sisters kidnapped by a truck driver on a remote highway in Montana. They learn the siblings are not the only girls who have disappeared in the area and must race against the clock to stop the killer before another woman is taken.
The cast of the series, which is based on the series of books by C.J. Box, also includes Dedee Pfeiffer, the younger sister of Kelley’s wife, actress Michelle Pfeiffer.
“Call Your Mother” stars Emmy winner Kyra Sedgwick as “an empty-nester mom who wonders how she ended up alone while her children live their best lives thousands of miles away,” then “decides her place is with her family and as she reinserts herself into their lives,” according to the network.
“Call You Mother” was created by Kari Lizer, the creator of the 2006-10 CBS comedy “The New Adventures of Old Christine” and a producer of the NBC comedy “Will & Grace.” It will air at 9:30 p.m. Wednesdays following “The Conners,” ABC’s most-watched comedy during the 2019-20 season.
Both series were ordered without pilots being made.
ABC’s scripted series set to begin airing at midseason include “black-ish” and its spinoff “mixed-ish” and the legal and family drama “For Life.”
ABC’s fall schedule consists of eight hours of alternative programming, seven hours of dramas, three hours of sports, and two hours each of comedy and news programming.
ABC is the last of the five major broadcast networks to announce its fall schedule amid an uncertain start to the season because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Fox’s fall schedule includes two nights of football, two hours of professional wrestling, two hours of alternative programming, two series that have previously aired on cable and no returning first-run live-action scripted programming.
The CW’s 12-hour fall schedule consists of four hours of alternative programming, two series that have aired on streaming or on-demand services, two series that have aired outside the U.S. and four returning series.
The CBS fall schedule consists of 13 hours of dramas, three hours of comedies, and two hours each of alternative series, news programming and reruns.
NBC’s fall prime-time schedule announced Tuesday consists of nine hours of drama, four hours each of “Dateline NBC” and sports, three hours of alternative programming, one hour of situation comedies and one hour of “Saturday Night Live” reruns.
Here is the fall ABC schedule:
— Sunday: “America’s Funniest Home Videos”; “Supermarket Sweep”; “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”; “The Rookie”;
— Monday: “Dancing with the Stars”; “The Good Doctor”;
— Tuesday: “The Bachelorette”; “Big Sky”;
— Wednesday: “The Goldbergs”; “American Housewife”; “The Conners”; “Call Your Mother”; “`Stumptown”;
— Thursday: “Station 19”; “Grey’s Anatomy”; “A Million Little Things”;
— Friday: “Shark Tank”; “20/20”; and
— Saturday: “Saturday Night Football.”