‘9-1-1’ Moving to Monday Nights Amid Huge TV Networks Shakeup

Fox is shaking things up this fall, announcing Monday that it will be making scheduling changes on almost every night of the week next season. The crime-based procedural drama, 9-1-1, is moving to Monday nights, a departure from its previously scheduled Wednesdays, Deadline reports.

While 9-1-1 will air predominantly on Mondays, the second season will get a post-football launch on Sunday, September 23. After that, it is scheduled for Mondays in the 9 o’clock hour. The Resident will stay on Mondays but is shifting to 8 p.m., where canceled Lucifer aired this season.

Fox’s new fall schedule features all three new multi-camera comedy series and no new drama series, with its biggest change coming in the addition of Thursday Night Football in the fall.

9-1-1 wrapped up its freshman season in March as one of the top-rated Wednesday night shows. The hit midseason series drew in a 1.7 rating in adults 18-49 and 6.6 million viewers on its season finale. It consistently ranked as Wednesday’s number one program in the key demo since its January debut, making it Fox’s highest-rated new series since Empire.

Fans of the first responder drama worry that Connie Britton may not be returning to the series after the season 1 finale saw her character, Abby, mourning the death of her mother and flying on a one-way ticket to Ireland.

After her mother’s death, Abby begins to wonder who she is now that her mother is gone. She reveals to her boyfriend Buck (Oliver Stark) that she bought a ticket to Dublin and that she plans to be gone for a while — not just to fulfill her mother’s dream of traveling, but so she can find herself.

“I think somewhere along the way I started caring so much about everybody else that I stopped caring for myself,” Abby told Buck. “I used to be person who would travel the world swimming in competitions, and I demanded so much from myself… I feel like I need to find that again.”

“I’m happy for you, almost as much as I’m sad for me,” Buck said, breaking the hearts of millions of 9-1-1 fans.

Ahead of the episode, executive producer Ryan Murphy revealed to TVLine that Britton initially signed on to do the show for one year as a favor to him.

“We’re in the process of renegotiating her deal so she can come in and do a couple of episodes to keep her character alive,” Murphy said. “She really loves the cast and crew and she’s very hopeful that that can happen… in the interim, we will be casting other parts in that call center. We’re going after big names.”

A spokesperson confirmed to TVLine that Britton is in talks to return for the second season as a guest star.

However, Murphy said he is optimistic Britton will still hold a prominent role on the series during season two, comparing her contract negotiations to those of stars from his other hit shows.

“I think the days of actors signing seven-year contracts and then not being able to do anything but that one particular show are over,” Murphy said. “Sarah Paulson was a regular on two shows of mine at once, and she went and did two movies in between. Actors have much more power and maneuverability than they had before. And I think that’s a good thing.”