'The Good Doctor' Not on Tonight, ABC Airing CMA Special Instead
Dr. Shaun Murphy and the rest of the team at St. Bonaventure Hospital have the night off this week. ABC is not airing a new episode of The Good Doctor on Monday. Instead, Backstage Pass: Countdown to the CMA Awards will air in its place at 10 p.m. ET, immediately following Dancing With the Stars' Janet Jackson night.
The next new episode of The Good Doctor, "One Heart," will air on Monday, Nov. 15 at 10 p.m. ET. The episode will see Shaun (Freddie Highmore) and Dr. Alex Park (Will Yun Lee) grapple with a life-and-death decision that means they can only save one of their two parents. Meanwhile, Dr. Morgan Reznick (Fiona Gubelmann) tries too hard to please Salen Morrison (Rachael Bay Jones). Derek Webster, Crystle Lightning, Shalev Snitz, and Patricia Isaac will also guest star in "One Heart."
Backstage Pass: Countdown to the CMA Awards will take country music fans backstage as Nashville's Bridgestone Arena prepares to host the 55th annual Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday. Luke Bryan is hosting for the first time. Jason Aldean and Carrie Underwood are set to perform "If I Didn't Love You," while Gabby Barrett will perform "The Good Ones." Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Luke Combs, Jennifer Hudson, Dan + Shay, Miranda Lambert, Mickey Guyton, Keith Urban, and Chris Stapleton are just a few of the performers scheduled to take the stage. Even though Jimmie Allen will be in Los Angeles Monday night for Dancing With the Stars, he is also expected to be in Nashville for the ceremony on Wednesday. The nominees for Entertainer of the Year are Underwood, Lambert, Stapleton, Combs, and Church.
The Monday night special will also include an interview with Lauren Alaina, who told ABC News that music helped her get through her depression during the COVID-19 pandemic. She dedicated herself to writing and recording her third album, Sitting Pretty on Top of the World. "It's the most emotional record I've ever made," Alaina said. "It's a record about resilience and loving yourself and overcoming and hope for the future and it's about healing, and I think the world really needs healing."
Bryan's solo hosting gig is the first time the show has had a solo host since Vince Gill in 2003. The American Idol judge has hosting experience since he previously co-hosted the Academy of Country Music Awards. When the CMA executives asked Bryan to host their show, he thought about it for a moment, then jumped at the chance. "I'm a student, and my passion for country music is something that's hard to even describe. So, I sat back and thought. I'm like, 'Hey, this is the CMAS. They want you to host this thing and run this thing,'" he told The Tennessean. "So I said, 'Hell, what am I thinking? Hell yes, I'll do it.'"