Earlier this month, at an Upfront presentation, Disney revealed the upcoming schedule for its ABC linear television channel for the fall, which will be reliant on unscripted shows, since the writer’s strike is going to impact filming on many popular shows like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The Good Doctor”.

ABC has called the upcoming Fall schedule, strike-proof, since it will be bringing back “Dancing With The Stars” from being a Disney+ exclusive, along with “The Bachelor”, “Celebrity Jeopardy!” and “Shark Tank”. Plus, there will be re-runs of “Abbott Elementary” mixed in.

But ABC also has another backup plan for the fall season, should the writer’s strike continue for longer than expected, as recently, ABC’s Senior Vice President of Content Strategy and Scheduling, Air Goldman, revealed during an interview with THR’s TV’s Top 5 podcast, that some content from Disney+ could be used to fill the gap.

“Certainly, we had conversations and we’ll continue to have conversations about that Disney portfolio.  From a scheduling standpoint, there are things we have to work through…. The formats of these shows are not designed for broadcast. We have a certain duration we have to fix and accommodate our ad load.”

He added, in reference to needing to pull Disney+ content off the bench, should the writer’s strike continue for too long:

“Everything and anything is on the table.  But I don’t think we’re there yet.”

There is plenty of great original programming that ABC could pull on, including popular Marvel and Star Wars shows, plus other original programming like “American Born Chinese” and “The Santa Clauses”.    There are also many other shows from Hulu that it could use, to help fill the gap.  Disney has recently started sharing its streaming shows on linear networks more regularly, and with Disney cutting back on how much original programming it is creating, as it looks to save $5.5 billion, which includes focusing on quality over quantity.   So utilising some Disney+ programming to fill the gap left by the writer’s strike does make sense.

But there could be some issues with using streaming originals on linear networks, since, unlike usual television shows, which are created to fit into a half-hour or hour slot, with ad breaks, most Disney+ shows aren’t designed for this, so this might require some changes to fit the linear schedule structure.  Disney has already done this in the past with broadcasts of “Big Shot”, “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers”, and “The Mysterious Benedict Society” on linear networks.

What do you think of Disney+ Originals being used on ABC to fill the gap left by the writer’s strike?  Let us know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

View all posts