ABC Scraps Four Pilots Amid Cancellations
Networks have been brutal when it comes to cancellations this year, and ABC just continued the trend by axing four of its potential pilots for the 2023-24 broadcast season. TVLine reports that medical drama The Hurt Unit, legal comedy Public Defenders, working moms sitcom Keeping It Together, and political drama Judgement are all on the chopping block and will not be premiering next season, at least not on ABC.
Starring Gotham and The O.C. vet Ben McKenzie, The Hurt Unit followed a team of skilled trauma surgeons and nurses who treat patients in the field who won't make it to the hospital in time. It would have been the latest medical drama on the network, following Grey's Anatomy and The Good Doctor, as well as the previously rescued 9-1-1. Studio ABC Signature has plans to shop the series around to other outlets, so it's possible that it will find a home elsewhere.
20th Television had two pilots at ABC that did not go through, with Anthony Anderson's legal comedy Public Defenders centering on four inexperienced public defenders who work to keep their clients out of jail as one of them. Meanwhile, Sarah Shahi would have played a potential Supreme Court Justice in the multi-timeline Judgement. The former will also try to find a new home.
Last but certainly not least, based on Sharon Horgan's British comedy Motherland, Keeping It Together starred Ellie Kemper and Judy Greer as a pair of working moms. It doesn't seem like its studio will be shopping it around anywhere, so it's likely that the series is officially done. A project with both Kemper and Greer would have been a riot, but it's always possible the actresses will take another project together.
Meanwhile, the potential The Good Doctor spinoff The Good Lawyer, starring Kennedy McMann and Felicity Huffman, is still up in the air. It remains as the only pilot still in contention on ABC, and there's no telling whether or not the network will pick it up to series. It had a backdoor pilot in Season 6 of the medical drama, and it seemed to do pretty well. Hopefully, the network makes a decision on the series soon, but considering it canceled four pilots, it could potentially be good news for The Good Lawyer. Fans will just have to wait and see and hope that the network orders it because there has been too much heartbreak already.