ABC will wait until mid-October to premiere its Tuesday night lineup, led by “Roseanne” spinoff “The Conners.”
The broadcaster revealed premiere dates for its new fall season Tuesday. The first of the network’s new episodes will debut Monday, Sept. 24, with the premieres of a new “Dancing With the Stars” and “The Good Doctor.” Long-running drama “Grey’s Anatomy” will enjoy a two-hour season premiere at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 27.
The biggest move, however, is the decision to hold the premiere of the Tuesday lineup until Oct. 16 — one that appears driven by the production schedule for “The Conners,” whose writers room opened weeks later than other series’. That delay was caused by the abrupt cancellation of “Roseanne” in response to star Roseanne Barr’s racist comments on Twitter, and the two weeks of subsequent negotiations that led to the order for a Barr-free spinoff, “The Conners.” Last year, ABC’s fall lineup premiered two weeks earlier in the calendar.