'Bachelor in Paradise' Takes Over Major ABC Timeslot With Significant Changes for Upcoming Season
Bachelor in Paradise is taking over the Monday night timeslot held by Dancing With the Stars on ABC, the network announced Tuesday. ABC will have four hours of Bachelor content airing during fall 2022, alongside primetime editions of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune featuring celebrity contestants. Hilary Swank's new drama Alaska will have Station 19 and Grey's Anatomy as lead-ins on Thursdays.
Bachelor in Paradise will take over two hours on Mondays and Tuesdays. On Mondays, the show will lead into The Good Doctor, which has aired Mondays at 10 p.m. ET since it debuted. The Rookie spinoff The Rookie: Feds will air after BiP's Tuesday edition. Feds is one of only two new scripted dramas ABC will debut in the fall, alongside Alaska.
Wednesdays will remain ABC's night for comedy. The Conners, The Goldbergs, Abbott Elementary, and Home Economics will air over the first two hours of the night. Big Sky will move to Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET. Thursday will be the home of Station 19, Grey's Anatomy, and Alaska, while Friday will include Shark Tank and 20/20.
America's Funniest Home Videos will return on Sundays at its usual 7 p.m. ET slot. Celebrity Jeopardy! will launch at 8 p.m. ET as the lead-in to the returning Celebrity Wheel of Fortune. The Rookie will keep its 10 p.m. ET Sunday slot.
This is the first ABC fall season without DWTS anchoring Mondays since 2007. After Season 30 wrapped, the network opted to ship DWTS to Disney+, making it the first American reality show to debut live episodes on a streamer. Craig Erwich, president of Hulu Originals & ABC Entertainment, told Variety they picked a Bachelor show to replace DWTS at the start of the season because Bachelor fans are used to the franchise airing that night. Erwich said they have still not hired a full-time host, as last season included a carousel of guest hosts replacing Chris Harrison.
"Bachelor in Paradise has a very unique format in that it's such a big tent for so many characters and storylines that it... easily expands across connected programing," Erwich explained. So even just creatively, which is obviously the most important consideration, we think that is going to be really fun for the viewers to have watch these things over the course of the two nights – and not just watch them, but talk about them. Bachelor in Paradise is one of our most social shows, in terms of conversation, people just love to watch, discuss, and then kind of watch again." Erwich also pointed out that the last BiP season had better live ratings than DWTS' last ABC season.
ABC is holding Gina Rodriguez's new show Not Dead Yet for midseason. The new seasons of The Wonder Years, A Million Little Things, American Idol, The Bachelor, and Judge Steve Harvey will also be held back until later in the year. Erwich said the decision to delay The Wonder Years had nothing to do with the misconduct allegations against recently-fired executive producer Fred Savage.