A new 911 spinoff could be coming to ABC but not in 2024

There is no doubt that the 911 franchise is popular. Even before FOX canceled the flagship series, ABC had worked in a renewal. This all came down to costs, with 20th Century producing the show. It made more sense for the series to be on ABC, as both are owned by Disney.

Now Ryan Murphy has returned to the Disney brand after a stint at Netflix. Deadline reports with all this coming together, ABC is looking at expanding the 911 franchise.

This won’t be too surprising. After all, 911 Lone Star is a popular show, and fans have wondered if there will be more set in other cities.

Don’t expect a 911 spin-off in 2024

However, this isn’t set to happen just yet. There is usually a backdoor pilot for spin-offs, although that didn’t happen for 911 Lone Star. The spin-off arguably didn’t need it with Rob Lowe leading the series. He immediately draws in the fans. Plus, the flagship series had already built an audience that was likely to give the spin-off a fair chance.

So, it’s not that time is needed to develop a backdoor pilot this season. Instead, it’s likely linked to the aftermath of the strikes last summer. There are a lot of decisions that networks need to make in terms of business. We just have to look at how ABC is looking to cut costs by canceling The Good Doctor and Station 19.

This doesn’t mean that we can’t see talk of a spin-off in 2024. It could be something to consider in the fall, as ABC looks to see how 911 performs on its network. This is a show the network wants to see succeed judging by the promotional push. It is one of the most expensive series on the network—in fact, one of the most expensive dramas overall—so it needs to pull in the live viewers. It already has an established fanbase, but are people all that happy about it moving from Mondays to Thursdays?

Deadline didn’t share if there were any proposals for a new city for the show. New York would be an obvious choice, but what about doing it somewhere slightly different? How about Atlanta, Georgia, Boston, Massachusetts, or even Kansas City, Missouri just for something unusual to other shows out there? The show could even go international to show the difference between American first responders and somewhere else in the world.

911 Season 7 premieres on Thursday, March 14 at 8/7c on ABC. Catch up on the series on Hulu.