ABC Renews Shondaland Legal Dramas ‘How to Get Away With Murder’ and ‘For the People’

ABC has given renewal orders to its Shondaland-produced legal dramas.

The network announced Friday a season five renewal for How to Get Away With Murder and a surprising season two order for freshman series For the People.

Murder showrunner Pete Nowalk announced the pickup on Twitter Friday afternoon.

“Season 5, we are coming for you! Thanks to all our fans,” he wrote.

When we last saw Annalise Keating and Co., TV Line reports, they were in an sort-of uplifting place after Laurel had gotten custody of her son Christopher, Annalise had won her Supreme Court case and Connor had reapplied to Middleton to continue studying law.

The series also introduced a last-minute mystery when when a student named Gabriel Maddox arrived at the university, who is apparently the son of another Murder character.

For the People, a surprising renewal as it has struggled in the ratings, stars Britt Robertson as Sandra Bell, a lawyer who regularly finds herself in the Federal Court of New York — also known as “The Mother Court.”

The show’s large ensemble cast also includes Hope Davis, Ben Shenkman, Jasmin Savoy, Susannah Flood, Wesam Keesh, Rege-Jean Page, Ben Rappaport, Anna Deavere Smith and Vondie Curtis-Hall. The show’s executive-producing team included Shondaland heavy hitters Shonda Rhimes, Betsy Beers and Tom Verica.

Shondaland dramas Grey’s Anatomy and Station 19 were also renewed for next season.

The announcement comes a few hours after the network cancelled dramas Designated Survivor and Quantico. While giving renewal orders to Splitting Up Together, and Speechless.

Designated Survivor was reportedly difficult to produce, as it was filmed in Toronto, the writers room was set in Los Angeles and creator David Guggenheim is based in New York. Sutherland, who executive produced the series, is highly involved in the show’s creative side and effectively does a pass on each script before it is finalized alongside Guggenheim.

The series is the first to come out of Gordon’s independent banner outside of ABC Studios, with the latter set as the lead producer on the show. The series might not have been a ratings monster, but a lucrative deal with Netflix and a strong international following made it a profitable series.

The Priyanka Chopra-led series Quantico, from ABC Studios and producer Mark Gordon, was a breakout when it debuted in fall 2015, setting delayed viewing lift records. But with its dense narrative and heavy serialization, the series started to lose momentum in the second half of its first season and continued to see declines into Season 3.

ABC’s current 2018-19 television schedule also includes renewed series like Roseanne, The Good Doctor, Modern Family and The Goldbergs. As well as new series, The Rookie, Take Two, A Million Little Things and Single Parents.