Television shows and the networks they air on always have a major decision to make when their leading ladies get pregnant. Will they spend most of the season hiding her behind big-ass coats and an insane number of shopping bags? Will they write her baby bump into the story? Will she simply be missing in action for several episodes? Or, will the network decide to hold off on the show in general while the actress’ belly grows and she enjoys some maternity leave? Well, ABC might be leaning toward that final choice when it comes to Kerry Washington’s newly announced pregnancy and how it will affect Scandal. And that might be good news for another TGIT show.
According to TV Line ABC is currently considering delaying the start date of Scandal until midseason, meaning that instead of starting this fall, the show wouldn’t air until sometime in early 2017. While that would certainly give Kerry Washington time to have her baby and take a post-baby break, the hole that would be left in ABC’s Thursday night lineup would be a big one. A new player in that schedule, The Catch, might be the show that the network chooses to fill the Scandal-less gap.
The idea of ABC filling the Scandal timeslot with The Catch isn’t a wild thought. Everyone knows that Thursdays on ABC are ruled by Shonda Rhimes and the Shondaland banner that has produced repeated success stories in Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder. The night is filled with murder, mayhem, lies, backstabbing and scintillating sexy times, so letting the newest entry to the Shondaland family fill the void seems like the right fit.
The Catch is a mystery and crime drama that debuted on the Thursday line up this March after How to Get Away with Murder wrapped up Season 2. The show centers on Alice (Mireille Enos), a private detective in Los Angeles who is scammed out of her entire life savings by her fraud-loving fiancé. As she takes on other cases, Alice works her way through all the clues she can find to track down her dirty ex. The show has a beautiful, powerful woman as the lead, with a job that easily lends itself to wild plot twists and high drama. All this means that the show shares a lot with Shonda Rhimes’ other shows. The program has been met with mostly positive reviews.
If ABC does decide to switch The Catch for Scandal it’s unlikely the move will do anything to hurt Scandal’s eventual return to the airwaves. But, it is incredibly likely that a fall showing for The Catch will only increase its visibility and make the show more popular than it currently is. And that’s the kind of news that the producers of any new show would hope for.
