ABC announced a fall schedule on Tuesday that doesn’t look much different than last year’s, but with one major exception: “High Potential,” which has turned into ABC’s signature primetime drama hit, isn’t there.

In what may be the most surprising move of the fall, ABC has opted to hold Season 3 of “High Potential” for midseason. (Perhaps they should call it “Hiatus Potential.”) Instead, “R.J. Decker” — which as one of the network’s few bubble shows, narrowly avoided cancellation – will get the primo Tuesday 10 p.m. slot (which had been filled by “High Potential” last fall).

Ari Goldman, ABC’s senior vice president, content strategy and scheduling, said the decision to move “High Potential” to midseason came out of wanting to air the show’s entire Season 3 run without a break.

“The ‘High Potential’ move to midseason is one that’s really born out of the success that we’ve proven over the last couple of years with ‘Will Trent,’ ‘The Rookie’ and the uninterrupted runs that we’ve enjoyed starting in that January timeframe going through the end of the season,” he said. “We’re thinking about the behavior of our linear audience, but also the streaming viewers, who really have shown the importance of week-over-week steadiness in planning and rolling out these shows. We do not take lightly the move of ‘High Potential’ to midseason, but I think this is a real opportunity to bridge through to the end of the year, to keep an uninterrupted run of episodes.”

Does that mean a smaller episodic count for “High Potential” next year? It’s still unclear. “High Potential” produced 18 episodes in Season 2, but premiered in the fall. As for next year, “We haven’t gone deep on the episode count for our shows, and we’re not going to be ready to comment on that,” Goldman said. “But I think we’re still looking at a really full season for ‘High Potential.’ That’s all I can say.”

Keeping your No. 1 show off the air in fall is an unusual move, but Goldman said ABC still plans to promote “High Potential” enough to keep it in circulation. “Rest assured, our audience will be well aware of the return of ‘High Potential,’” he said. “We will have that that show all over ABC as we get close to the return.”

As for the decision to place “R.J. Decker” in that Tuesday 10 p.m. slot, “we can use a lead in ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ which is so far and away the biggest live audience opportunity on television today, to invest in something new that can be exposed to some more viewers,” Goldman said.

In renewing “R.J. Decker,” Goldman noted that “at the end of the day, ‘R.J. Decker’ opened phenomenally well on the network and really held up across its season. If you look at the linear ratings, I don’t think we ever dipped below 3 million viewers on ABC. If you look at streaming, we had the biggest week of streaming for the show to date, the week after the finale.”

To promote “R.J. Decker,” ABC is heavily repeating the show throughout the summer. “I think the signs are there to be able to nurture this one into an even bigger story,” he said.

Overall, ABC is framing next season as its most stable schedule ever — as it brings back every single one of the Alphabet’s scripted shows. “This is the first time in the history of the network, since 1948, that we have renewed every scripted series at ABC,” Goldman said. “We’ve also grown the scripted count up from the last in each of the last two years. So for us, it’s, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’”

That’s why, for the most part, ABC’s schedule doesn’t look too different from last fall. In perhaps its other big move, the network’s hit “Scrubs” revival will quickly return in fall, leading off Wednesday at 8 p.m., followed by Season 6 of “Abbott Elementary” (which Variety can confirm does continue to have a now-rare 22-episode order) at 8:30 p.m.

“We did have the highest-rated comedy telecast on any network all season with that premiere,” Goldman said of “Scrubs.” “It was a big event for us and really brought a lot of attention back to ABC Wednesdays. It also really helps when you have a very-well executed show like this ‘Scrubs’ revival.”

With “Scrubs” on the fall slate, “Shifting Gears” also moves to midseason.

Meanwhile, there’s no version of “The Bachelor” in the fall, as both the dating show’s original recipe and “Bachelor in Paradise” spinoff will air in 2027. As for “The Bachelorette,” which was pulled from the spring schedule in light of the ongoing legal saga of star Taylor Frankie Paul, Goldman says there’s no news yet on when — or if — it will air.

“’The Bachelorette’ dynamic right now is one that we were just approaching day by day,” he said. “This is real life, and we want to make sure we don’t rush into any determination in either direction. So I have nothing to share in terms of a scheduling announcement, for anything involving ‘The Bachelorette.’”

Among other shows, ABC keeps Thursday night intact with “9-1-1,” “9-1-1: Nashville” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” The rest of the week is a mix of reality TV, sports and “Wonderful World of Disney” Sunday night movies, which will kick off this season with the TV premiere of “Inside Out 2.”

Goldman is also bullish on the fact that ABC will air the Super Bowl (simulcast with ESPN) this coming season — the first time the Alphabet net will broadcast the big game in 21 years. However, ABC isn’t ready yet to announce its program lead-out plans from the game just yet. (The return of “High Potential” would seem like an obvious choice.)

“I don’t think we’re going to be announcing the specific selection at the upfront,” he said. “But I can tell you, we are very excited for the opportunity, and we are very clearly focused on an ABC Entertainment series that will air after Super Bowl.”

Besides “High Potential” and “Shifting Gears,” other scripted series returning in midseason include “The Rookie” and “Will Trent.” And then there’s the one new show announced for ABC next year: “The Rookie: North,” a spinoff of “The Rookie” starring Jay Ellis.

As it prepared to announce its schedule at the Disney upfront on Tuesday in New York, ABC noted its cross-platform broadcast ratings in adults 18-49 — with four of the five top programs, including  “High Potential” (No. 1), “Dancing with the Stars” (No. 3), “The Rookie” (No. 4) and “Abbott Elementary” (No. 5).

“We enter this fall season from a position of undeniable strength,” Disney Television Group prexy Craig Erwich said in a statement. “Our focus has always been simple: Make the best shows on television and get them to audiences however they want to watch. That strategy continues to drive the success of ABC and Hulu — from legacy hits being embraced by new generations to breakout series becoming the next cultural touchstones. With a standout slate of comedies, dramas, unscripted and live programming, alongside marquee events like the Super Bowl, the College Football Playoff, the Grammys and the Oscars in 2027, our content engine is firing on all cylinders.”

Here’s ABC’s fall 2026 schedule:

MONDAY

8 p.m.  ESPN’s “Monday Night Football”

TUESDAY

8 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars”

10 p.m. “R.J. Decker”

WEDNESDAY

8 p.m. “Scrubs”

8:30 p.m. “Abbott Elementary”

9 p.m. “Celebrity Jeopardy!”

10 p.m. “Shark Tank”

THURSDAY

8 p.m.  “9-1-1”

9 p.m.  “9-1-1: Nashville”

10 p.m. “Grey’s Anatomy”

FRIDAY            

8 p.m.  “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune”

9 p.m.  “20/20” (two hours)

SATURDAY

7:30 p.m. College Football

SUNDAY

7 p.m. “America’s Funniest Home Videos”

8 p.m. “The Wonderful World of Disney”

MIDSEASON

“The Bachelor”

“Bachelor in Paradise”

“High Potential”

“The Rookie”

“The Rookie: North”

“Shifting Gears”

“Will Trent”