How ABC Found a Surprise Hit in ‘The Good Doctor’
- 7 years ago
How ABC Found a Surprise Hit in ‘The Good Doctor’
Robert Iger, the chief executive of Disney, ABC’s parent company, did not mince words when he described his disappointment
with the network earlier this month, saying, “Some improvement from a quality aspect would be helpful.”
Enter, “The Good Doctor.”
The show is partly the result of a programming strategy
that ABC hit upon last year, after heartland voters had a strong hand in the election of President Trump — a strategy focused on “not just appealing to both coasts,” said Ben Sherwood, the president of the Disney and ABC television group.
With roughly 17 million viewers for each episode, according to the Nielsen ratings, it
draws a bigger audience than the CBS crime show “NCIS” and NBC’s weepy “This is Us.”
The surprise hit has been a boon to ABC, which has been stuck in last place among the big four networks.
The tweets Mr. Kim scrolled through that night would soon give way to hard data:
ABC’s “The Good Doctor” is the most watched drama on network television.
Mr. Kim took notice of the original version of “The Good Doctor,” an award-winning
20-episode series in South Korea, not long after it started airing in 2013.
Robert Iger, the chief executive of Disney, ABC’s parent company, did not mince words when he described his disappointment
with the network earlier this month, saying, “Some improvement from a quality aspect would be helpful.”
Enter, “The Good Doctor.”
The show is partly the result of a programming strategy
that ABC hit upon last year, after heartland voters had a strong hand in the election of President Trump — a strategy focused on “not just appealing to both coasts,” said Ben Sherwood, the president of the Disney and ABC television group.
With roughly 17 million viewers for each episode, according to the Nielsen ratings, it
draws a bigger audience than the CBS crime show “NCIS” and NBC’s weepy “This is Us.”
The surprise hit has been a boon to ABC, which has been stuck in last place among the big four networks.
The tweets Mr. Kim scrolled through that night would soon give way to hard data:
ABC’s “The Good Doctor” is the most watched drama on network television.
Mr. Kim took notice of the original version of “The Good Doctor,” an award-winning
20-episode series in South Korea, not long after it started airing in 2013.