Television series comprise a huge chunk of the schedule for San Diego Comic-Con — and every year it seems like they become a larger and larger piece of the pie. The lines for Ballroom 20 sometimes rival even those of Hall H, and they won’t be getting any shorter any time soon.
As the anticipation builds for the official announcements from networks and CCI as to which television shows will be on the panel schedule, we like to take time out to speculate which shows have the best chances of appearing at SDCC. We’ll be breaking this into three segments, starting with the Cable & Streaming Networks, Broadcast Networks (which you can read right here), and the Family Networks (coming later this week).
It’s also important to note that while we’ve broken out the schedule by which network a series airs on, these aren’t necessarily the entities that physically own the shows, and thus would bring them to Comic-Con. For instance, Lois & Clark is actually a Warner Bros. production, that merely airs on The CW, so Warner Bros. is the one who would bring it to the convention. Confusing? We know. That’s why we’ve laid it out like this — but don’t panic if your favorite shows aren’t on any announcements the networks and studios make in the next two months.
So what do we think you could be seeing at Comic-Con this summer from the broadcast networks? Let’s take a look:
ABC
Surely it’s time for us to finally get our big, in-person panel for Abbott Elementary. ABC clearly knows that Comic-Con attendees love it — after all, they brought an award-winning offsite in 2021, and last year it got the prime advertising placement across from the convention center on the front of Petco Park. Due to both the pandemic and the actor’s strikes, we have yet to have an in-person panel for the series… and that will surely change in 2024. Right, ABC? Right??
They also brought The Rookie in 2022 (alongside The Rookie: Feds, which has since been canceled), and there’s plenty of reason to think they could do so again. ABC and Disney know that Fillion draws a crowd, and after most attendees didn’t realize the 2022 panel would be virtual, it sure would be nice for a do-over. Or they could simply wash their hands of it, as even in the old days when they brought Castle, it was never a consistent performer at the con.
They’ve also got High Potential, which stars Kaitlin Olson as a single mom “with an exceptional mind” and a knack for solving crimes. It hails from showrunner Rob Thomas (Veronica Mars) and also stars Daniel Sunjata. It’s not immediately genre fare, but it may just have enough beloved people involved, and the fact that if Olson is involved you know it’s more fun than by-the-numbers, to warrant some promo.
Then there’s the Ryan Murphy of it all. Last year, the Ryan Murphy-produced 9-1-1 was given a second life by ABC. It’s certainly long in the tooth, heading into its eighth season and possibly not until the spring, but crazier things have happened. They’ve also got his upcoming series Doctor Odyssey, which stars Joshua Jackson as a medical doctor aboard a luxury cruise ship. It’s also not genre, unless you consider Murphy’s particular brand of wacky, over-the-top-ness a genre unto itself, but it sounds fun and it makes as much sense as something like The Rookie. It won’t start filming until mid-June, but that could be enough to give attendees a small taste if ABC and Disney TV wanted. Plus, we’ll never turn down another chance for PaceyCon.
CBS
With CBS, we think it’ll once again be all about Ghosts. We would be frankly shocked if the network didn’t bring its Woodstone Manor residents back for another panel (likely in Ballroom 20), and possibly another offsite. The series has a passionate fanbase and a fun premise, and Comic-Con is exactly the place to play into both.
CBS has a few other series they could bring, if they so choose. The most obvious is the upcoming Watson, which stars Morris Chestnut as the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle character, set in modern day. It’s exactly the kind of thing CBS has brought to the con many, many times, and the only knock against it is that it won’t start filming until June, and that it’s a mid-season replacement, so it may be too early for much promo.
They’ve also got the upcoming Matlock series, based off the classic TV series, which stars Kathy Bates as the title character. We suspect that this one skews too old for the Comic-Con crowd, but CBS has done crazier (and worse) things at the con, certainly.
They could also focus on some of their not-new-but-new-to-Comic-Con shows, including Tracker, which sees Justin Hartley as a lone-wolf survivalist basically working as a bounty hunter, and recently finished airing its first season. It hasn’t started filming season two yet, so we think it’s probably too early to bring to the con though. There’s also Fire Country, an action drama about volunteer fire fighters in California, but it’s not genre and not the type of fare CBS typically brings.
So basically: Get ready for another fun trip back to Woodstone Manor with Ghosts! It’s the right call, CBS.
The CW
Since its sale, the CW was more or less gutted, but it’s slowly starting to try to revive itself. Of its older series, we definitely think The CW and Warner Bros. might bring Superman & Lois, whose fourth season is set to air later this year. But it’s also the final season, and they may decide it’s not worth bringing for that reason.
For their new fare, they’ve got a few options, starting with Sherlock & Daughter. Based on the Air Arthur Conan Doyle books, the series follows Sherlock (as played in this iteration by David Thewlis) who is working a case when an American girl whose mother has been murdered claims to be his daughter. It sounds like a fun little mystery series, and the history element might make it genre enough to give it a push.
There’s also The Librarians: The Next Chapter, a new spinoff of the original The Librarians films and TV series that previously aired on TNT. The new series follows the adventures of the custodians of a magical repository of the world’s most powerful and dangerous artifacts. Due to timing, the original always headed to NYCC instead of SDCC, and the same could be true here as well given that we still don’t have a premiere date outside of “later this year”.
They’ve also got Joan, a six-part series starring Sophie Turner as the notorious Joan Hannington, a mother fleeing a disastrous marriage who becomes a jewel thief to keep them afloat. Turner’s Game of Thrones cred may warrant some promo at the con alone, and it sounds like the kind of fun fare that in the old days would have been a lock. These days, the best we can really say is “maybe”.
For a network that formerly had among the highest number of panels at the convention, these days, it’s hard to say if we’ll see more than a panel or two. The times, they are a-changin’.
FOX
We expect Saturday’s annual animation domination will be back this year with back-to-back panels for The Simpsons, American Dad!, and Family Guy (alongside Hulu’s Futurama). At this point, it’s tradition.
Meanwhile, on Friday, you will likely find Bob’s Burgers and The Great North, as we would be very surprised indeed if the two Loren Bouchard series don’t make their triumphant return.
We would also be shocked if Krapopolis wasn’t back at the con. FOX has gone hard on the Dan Harmon-created series at the con for the past two years, and it was renewed for three seasons before ever even airing a single episode.
And although it will have finished airing its first season, we also wouldn’t be surprised if Grimsburg got added to the mix. The series premiered earlier this year, and follows a detective (as voiced by Jon Hamm) in the fictional town of Grimsburg. It’s already been renewed for a season two, and last year it was mostly only represented in the Animayhem artwork on the Omni, so it feels like an easy series to add to the mix depending on its stars schedules.
In new animated fare, there’s Universal Basic Guys, centered on two brothers who lose their jobs at the hot dog factory to automation and are given $3,000 a month in new basic income.
On the live-action side, nothing really feels genre enough to warrant an appearance at the con. They’ve got Murder in a Small Town about a detective solving murders and discovering a town’s secrets, but unless those secrets are supernatural in nature, we don’t think this one stands a chance. They’ve also got Rescue: HI-Surf, which follows lifeguards in O’ahu and sounds like 9-1-1 meets Baywatch, but isn’t the kind of show Fox typically brings.
NBC
We’ve been big fans of NBC’s presence at the con for many, many years, but this year looks pretty bleak in terms of offerings. We wouldn’t be surprised if NBC’s presence was part of a larger NBCUniversal family umbrella that doesn’t give a huge push to any one particular thing (or if they focused on their Peacock series).
The closest thing they have to traditional genre fare this year is Hunting Party, a high-concept crime procedural about a small team of investigators who are assembled to track down and capture the most dangerous killers our country has ever seen, all of whom have just escaped from a top-secret prison that’s not supposed to exist. It sounds perfectly fine, but not really buzz-worthy for the Comic-Con crowd, unless there’s a fun offsite to go with it (and to be fair, it does sound tailor-made for an escape room type experience).
Of their other new live-action drama series, Brilliant Minds stars Zachary Quinto as a world-famous author and neurologist whose team explores the human mind while also dealing with their own relationships and mental health. It’s definitely not genre, but Quinto has some cred with this crowd. So if NBC wants, hey, it’s an option.
If NBC goes back to focusing on their comedy series, there’s a small chance they could bring along the rebooted Night Court (heading into its third season) and the new St. Denis Medical. The latter is a mockumentary about an underfunded and understaffed hospital, and stars Wendi McLendon-Covey, Allison Tolman, and David Alan Grier. It’s also not immediately genre, but SDCC-goers love a good comedy and NBC knows that (or they used to, at least).
TV Graveyard
We’d also like to take a moment to reflect back upon our dearly departed shows that won’t be gracing the stages at San Diego Comic-Con this summer, either because they were canceled, or simply ended their run. Here are the broadcast shows that you won’t be seeing at SDCC again, at least until that ten year reunion:
La Brea (NBC)
Magnum P.I. (CBS/NBC)
Quantum Leap (NBC)
The Rookie: Feds (ABC)
