When ABC announced its Fall 2026 schedule during the Upfronts presentations, fans received news about their favorite shows that ranged from frustrating to exciting. If you're a fan of RJ Decker and Scrubs, then you're over the moon about the series making the move to the fall schedule, but if you're a fan of High Potential, you weren't quite as lucky.
For the first time since the hit series premiered in 2024, High Potential will not premiere as part of the Fall 2026 schedule. ABC has moved the season 3 premiere to midseason, meaning the show won't return until 2027 after that unbelievable cliffhanger. It's an unprecedented wait for a show, one of the network's biggest and most-watched, that was believed to be a fall anchor.
But two of the show's stars are urging fans to see the bright side of having to wait until 2027 for the show to return. Yes, it's unfortunate that High Potential season 3 won't premiere in September as usual, but there's a big reward for our patience, and it's long been a demanded change for the series by fans. Javicia Leslie and Deniz Akdeniz explain the silver lining of the longer wait.
While chatting with TV Insider at the ABC Upfronts, Leslie explained why High Potential season 3 will be more than worth the longer hiatus and will be a positive change for fans: "I think because I get threatened a lot about our show having to take off for holidays and other things like that, the best part of midseason is you get a more consistent schedule."
Leslie continued, "You don’t have to take off time to hang with your family or have family time. Forget that family, you can get High Potential every..." And Akdeniz finished her sentence with, "...every week. So, once we’re back, we’re gonna be going all throughout."
The High Potential stars confirmed that season 3 will air weekly without interruption, which was part of the reason behind the show's move to midseason. For its first two seasons, and especially during the second season, the show's weekly schedule was chaotic and disrupted by weeks off caused by sporting events, holidays, and other things that took new episodes off the schedule.
It's one of the biggest gripes with fans of broadcast television shows. Whether you're watching small-screen shows on the night or you're tuning in the next day on streaming services, there are frequent breaks in between episodes, between sports, the Olympics, or the simple need for the network to stretch a season out as long as possible. Audiences have tired of frequent interruptions.
Even though we don't know how many episodes High Potential season 3 will have at this time, we can breathe a huge sigh of relief that no matter of it's 13 or 18 episodes, we won't have to contend with reruns, weeks off, multi-week breaks, and other frustrations that plague TV shows on broadcast networks. That's one of the perks of patiently waiting until January 2027.
There's been a marked trend in networks saving some of the best shows to drop in mideason, which has effectively split the television season into two halves. The start of the television season also could be leaning toward starting in January rather than September. ABC's saving Will Trent, The Rookie, The Rookie: North, and Shifting Gears for mideason, a good crop to start 2017 with a bang.
Stay tuned for more TV news and updates leading into the next season!
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