The Breakdown: ABC Thursday in 2024-25 (9-1-1, Doctor Odyssey, Grey's Anatomy and more!)

It's time for a journey through the ABC Thursday schedule in 2024-25...


fall

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2023-24	The Golden Bachelor		The Golden Bachelor	Bachelor in Paradise				Bachelor in Paradise	Bachelor in Paradise	Bachelor in Paradise	112
	2023-24	158		158	89		89	89		89		112
2024-25	9-1-1		9-1-1	Doctor Odyssey		Doctor Odyssey	Grey's Anatomy		Grey's Anatomy	96 (-15%)
	2024-25	123 (-22%)		122.882627456256	90 (+1%)		90 (+1%)	74 (-17%)			74 (-17%)	95.8379466272079
VsAvg	+17%		0.172723216413082	-28%		-0.28170119752209	-19%		-0.185356847175958	-11%
Rank	9/26		9/26	18/26		18/26	17/26		17/26	18/26

Tentpoles 9-1-1 and Grey's Anatomy returned to the fall for ABC. Both looked weaker than ever before, but 9-1-1 was still a more than capable lead-in for new Ryan Murphy drama Doctor Odyssey. Odyssey looked pretty decent in its first three weeks, which are kinda carrying the fall average above, but it took a huge dip to 0.25 in week four and never really recovered.

winter

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2023-24	Press Your Luck		Press Your Luck	American Idol (R)		American Idol (R)	Will Trent (R)		Will Trent (R)	71
	2023-24	106		106	69		69	39			39	71
2024-25	Extreme Makeover: Home Edition		Extreme Makeover: Home Edition	Scamanda		Scamanda	Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini (R)		Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini (R)	59 (-18%)
	2024-25	80 (-24%)		80.3463333367825	58 (-16%)		58 (-16%)	38 (-3%)			38 (-3%)	58.5530468434722
VsAvg	-14%		-0.135667935877859	-49%		-0.493329757757811	-52%		-0.519864846849486	-38%
Rank	13/26		13/26	21/26		21/26	24/26		24/26	22/26

ABC dredged up Extreme Makeover: Home Edition for its first ABC originals since 2012. (It had a short-lived run of HGTV originals in 2020.) It was fairly mediocre filler, coming in a bit behind the last season of its long Sunday run in 2010-11. Docu-drama Scamanda and more Hulu reruns rounded out the night.

spring

Year	8:00	8:30	9:00	9:30	10:00	10:30	Avg
2023-24	9-1-1		9-1-1	Grey's Anatomy		Grey's Anatomy	Station 19		Station 19	111
	2023-24	143		143	116		116	75			75	111
2024-25	9-1-1		9-1-1	Doctor Odyssey		Doctor Odyssey	Grey's Anatomy		Grey's Anatomy	89 (-20%)
	2024-25	129 (-10%)		128.834207703425	73 (-37%)		73 (-37%)	65 (-13%)			65 (-13%)	89.0403084037256
VsAvg	+42%		0.424467540795773	-38%		-0.380049498262906	-20%		-0.198378802862079	-8%
Rank	8/26		8/26	20/26		20/26	16/26		16/26	19/26

Doctor Odyssey's return from hiatus in March brought no improvement from its late fall struggles, and by the last month it had gotten even worse, mired in the mid-0.2's with some points at sub-50% retention. This came while 9-1-1 was actually doing better in the spring than the fall, with a season high 0.53 in its March 6 return and a consistent run of solid 0.4's.

Rating the Ratings (about grades)

Name	Lo	Avg	Hi	y2y	Plus	Label	Plusy2y	Results
9-1-1*	0.3	0.41	0.5	-25%	128	hit	-10%	detail
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition*	0.2	0.26	0.3		80	marginal		detail
Doctor Odyssey	0.2	0.26	0.4		81	marginal		detail
Scamanda	0.1	0.18	0.2		58	flop		detail
Grey's Anatomy*	0.2	0.22	0.3	-48%	70	marginal	-37%	detail

9-1-1: The show finally dropped out of the 140-170 range that defined its first seven seasons, and it looked like it could be much worse after a sluggish run in the fall. However, I was impressed enough with its finding a higher level in the spring that I will be a bit generous on the grade. Grade: C+.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: It's just winter filler, but ABC's found plenty of options for that role that can do league average business after local programming, like last year's Press Your Luck, not to mention celebrity Jeopardy!/Wheel. The show was limping along at the end of its ABC run and that pretty much continued. Grade: C.

Doctor Odyssey: ABC actually has little recent history of outright failure with dramas in this hour, usually at least managing to find something OK like Station 19 or A Million Little Things. The closest analogue was the fall 2016 drama Notorious (71 Plus) which I gave a D-, but even Odyssey wasn't that big a flop. Still, given the Ryan Murphy pedigree, it clearly should've done better. Murphy gets the hour back with 9-1-1: Nashville, hoping a spin-off will be a more comfortable fit. Grade: D+.

Grey's Anatomy: One of the most prolific Nielsen ratings performers in the A18-49+ era, Grey's Anatomy has finally lived long enough to become the ratings dud hanging on for non-ratings reasons. It's a similar drop to what Station 19 had in its move to 10/9c last season. It's coming from 9/8c, whereas Station had aired at 8/7c the previous season, so you could argue it's even worse, but Grey's also had much less help airing after Odyssey. Maybe 9-1-1: Nashville can squeeze a little more ratings juice out of Grey's next year. Grade: C-.

The names in this last table link to the shows' War of 18-49 pages. Links with an asterisk(*) have been updated with the new info. Updates to younger shows will come later in the summer.

Previous Breakdowns for ABC Thursday: 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24

Here's the now updated Schedules Plus for ABC Thursday.