The Hulu comedy Only Murders in the Building is moving to mainstream television! According to The Hollywood Reporter, the comedy is expected to air its first season on ABC starting in January. This will be a temporary move for the series.
The season will air during two-hour blocks on Tuesday nights starting Jan.2, with a one-hour window for its season finale, which is expected to air on Jan.23.
ABC is also expected to move Celebrity Jeopardy! to Tuesday nights for the remaining episodes of its latest season, kicking off with its semifinal on Jan.2. The game series will broadcast at 8 p.m., followed by Only Murders in the Building at 9 p.m. The two-hour blocks will broadcast three episodes each on Jan.2,9 and 16.
These moves will help ABC fill its schedule before the return of the network’s very own scripted series that will return in February, such as Will Trent, The Good Doctor and The Rookie, which are expected to occupy Tuesdays starting on Feb 20.
Yet, the network has not made any programming schedules known for the first weeks 2024. The series that will air after Celebrity Jeopardy! and Only Murders in the Building conclude are still up in the air.
Production on many scripted series resumed following the end of the writers’ and actors’ strike, but ABC shows won’t continue until February. The network’s main show on Tuesdays, Dancing with the Stars, will finish its season next week. After the finale, ABC will run its holiday programming and reruns for the rest of December.
The move of Only Murders in the Building is akin to what CBS did with Paramount Network’s Yellowstone and Paramount+’s SEAL Team this fall to help fill in primetime schedules affected by the strikes.
Yellowstone, for one, has done well on Sundays for CBS, replacing 60 Minutes with averages of a little more than five million; this includes a week of delayed viewing. While Only Murders in the Building does not have the same hype as Yellowstone, the comedy series is still a massive hit on Hulu.
With big names like Selena Gomez (Wizards of Waverly Place, Princess Protection Program), Martin Short (Father of the Bride, Clifford) and Steve Martin (The Pink Panther, Cheaper by the Dozen), the series follows these three as they live in a Manhattan apartment building; they end up befriending each other as they investigate and start a podcast about the murder of a someone in their building. The first season aired on Hulu in 2021, earning three Emmy awards, along with a guest acting win for Nathan Lane (Mouse Hunt, Stuart Little).
The series is from 20th Television and was created by Martin and John Hoffman (Grace and Frankie, Looking). Only Murders in the Building is executively produced by Dan Fogelman (Last Vegas, This is Us), Jess Rosenthal (Fire with Fire, License to Wed), Jamie Babbit (But I’m a Cheerleader, Gilmore Girls), and Short and Gomez.
ABC, 20th Century and Hulu are all connected and a part of Disney.