Kaitlin Olson has been splitting fans’ sides as It’s Always Sunny’s Sweet Dee for nearly two decades, but will soon hit the 2024 TV schedule with her new show, ABC’s High Potential. I can’t wait to see her taking on a brand new character, but I’m now over the moon after her update regarding when The Gang will be returning to Philadelphia for Season 17 of the FXX fan-favorite.
In High Potential, Olson will be playing a whip-smart single mom who takes a job cleaning up a police department, only to find herself tag-teaming with a detective (played by Daniel Sunjata) to help with his casework. It sounds like a blast, even if it’ll lean more into dramatic storytelling than fans are maybe used to. Thankfully, though, it sounds like she’ll be getting back into self-deprecating form as Dee while audiences are still watching her in ABC’s Fall TV lineup.
Speaking with The Playlist, the Hacks co-star revealed when It’s Always Sunny will jump back into filming, and the fun connection the two shows share.
Yeah, so we wrap [High Potential] this in October, and then I think three days later we start shooting Sunny, but it’s on the same lot, so I’ll be in the spring of things.
Given that High Potential's home of ABC shares a parent company with It's Always Sunny's FXX, the two shows sharing a studio lot perhaps isn’t all that surprising, but it’s still a nifty mini-perk. Kaitlin Olson possibly won’t struggle to get used to her future schedule, since it’ll be pretty close to the one she’s already used to. Albeit with far different scenes being filmed.
Olson’s update lines up quite nicely with Charlie Day recently revealing that he’ll be back in the writers room for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia starting next week. Which, speaking generally, means the writers will be busy cranking out quasi-controversial storylines for Dee, Frank, Dennis, Charlie and Mac for the next two months or so before the filming side of the production gets underway.
And then to extrapolate things further, Olson more or less expects Season 17’s filming to take around five months, which lines up with past seasons. When jokingly asked if she’ll ever get a vacation amidst the back-to-back productions, she said:
We’ll see. I’ll get back to you. I don’t know. Let’s talk next March and I’ll fill you in. No, I think the last I heard we’re doing 13, we’re going to finish in October. . . . January will be a little bit lighter, so we’re close.
Obviously things can change at any point during this process, and I’d imagine it could make things more complicated if ABC execs wanted to order more episodes of High Potential beyond the initial 13. It’s possible her contract stipulations will stop such a clash from coming up, but it’ll be interesting to see how the network handles things if the show is a huge hit. Check out the latest preview for it below!
High Potential only recently revealed its latest new cast member in Raising Hope and Fear the Walking Dead vet Garret Dillahunt, an actor who excels in whatever genre he’s thrown into. So here’s hoping his connection with Olson on that show will lead to him popping up on Always Sunny in Season 17 and/or beyond.
Having earned her second Primetime Emmy nomination for her excellence as Hacks’ DJ, Kaitlin Olson will be all over broadcast TV when High Potential premieres on ABC on Tuesday, September 17, at 10:00 p.m. ET.
