Network television might get a bad rap for being a wasteland of similar hour-long dramas, but every year there’s at least one show that comes out that’s a delightful little gem. Last season, CBS launched Elsbeth, and this season we got Kaitlin Olson on the primetime TV schedule over at ABC, where she kicked off a little procedural called High Potential. Turns out the title was apt, but if Olson herself had gotten her way, she probably would not have taken the gig.
Before nabbing the role on the freshman drama, Olson said Drew Goddard –of Buffy and Lost fame – wrote the first episode and they approached her agent for the role. Her agent basically had to push her into even meeting with the network, which is wild to think about given how successful the freshman run of High Potential has been. But she had her reasons, as she shared with Conan O’Brien on ‘Needs A Friend.’
I was not interested when they came to me and wanted to have lunch. I was like, ‘ABC, hour-long drama? No thank you.’ My agent was like, ‘No, you’re gonna go have lunch with them.’ And I was like, ‘What did you just say to me?’ He was like, ‘It’s good. You’re gonna read it, and you’re gonna have lunch. I’m gonna make you, because I think you’re gonna really want to do it.’ I just had no interest in – first of all, working for a network. I’m very spoiled on FX. They let us do whatever we want and say whatever we want.
The reasons she kept trying to tell her agent no continued, as she said there’s a lot of network involvement on network shows, versus some of her other recent roles, which include projects like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX) or Hacks (HBO). I'd have to assume this is based on her previous network experience, which includes both guest stints on shows like New Girl and her own former series The Mick, which was unceremoniously canceled after two seasons. But finally, she picked up the script.
I have a hard time with executives, who aren’t creatives, telling me what I can and can’t do… It’s all fine, and it works and a lot of people are fine with that. I’m so blessed that I’m in a position where I want to show up and have fun with my life that’s at home and at work. I was very gun shy, and then I read [Drew Goddard’s] script and was like, ‘Oh, I think I’m in.’
Basically, Kaitlin Olson had all the reasons in the world to say no to the new TV series, but (thankfully) through a confluence of events the script got into her hands. She also is a person who firmly feels that if projects aren’t up to par, she can “walk away,” which I assume gave her some peace of mind, despite reservations about working on network TV again.
There’s quite a freedom in knowing that I really would walk away if it was not up to the quality that I wanted to put out there. That’s not like a threat, it’s just really like, ‘No thanks. I mean, thanks so much for thinking of me, but I don’t…’ yeah.
Her main concern with the new series was that she “wanted people to want to come back” for every episode and not just watch one and immediately forget about it. Between her oddball detective personality, her quirky outfits, her great supporting cast, and several Season 1 finale cliffhangers, including the mystery of what happened to her first husband all lingering, it’s hard to pick out exactly which reason I’m tuning in each week. It’s really a grab bag of goodness.
While the first season has wrapped now (too soon I might add), High Potential has already been renewed by ABC for Season 2, so we thankfully didn’t need to add it to the list of shows canceled in 2025 so far.
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