ABC has several veteran drama series on the 2025-26 schedule, Grey’s Anatomy, renewed for a record 22nd season, 9-1-1, headed into Season 9, and The Rookie, into Season 8. As series age, they become more expensive, which means they have to meet a higher performance threshold in order to remain viable.
That is usually hard to achieve as shows’ audience tends to decline over time. But 9-1-1, The Rookie and Grey’s Anatomy have remained strong, which is why there are no current plans for either to end next season.
Craig Erwich, president, Disney Television Group, had an issue with the trio being qualified as “older shows.”
“Those may be quote unquote ‘older shows’ in terms of how many seasons, but what we’re seeing is new generations of fans coming in and discovering these shows,” he said. “We have at Disney a very unique ecosystem where we have multiple platforms, but we’re able to create singular events. We’re better at it than anybody.”
He referenced the recent release by Nielsen of multi-platform season ratings for all broadcast series, “which is quite frankly, the modern way to to measure performance,” he said.
“We have the top five shows in adults 18-49 on multi-platform viewers,” Erwich said. “We have the No.1 show this year so far with High Potential.”
The Rookie is No.3 on the list, 9-1-1 is No.4 while Grey’s is No. 11 while continuing to be a signature brand for Disney worldwide and a streaming powerhouse.
“Those shows continue to recruit new viewers and stay fresh, and they stay current in the storytelling,” Erwich said of the trio. “So this we don’t really consider them older shows. They’re young and spry and vibrant, and continue to deliver performance and a lot of joy and entertainment to those viewers.”
English (US) ·