ABC Cancels Long-Running Drama Series
The popular ABC drama The Good Doctor will end its run this year with its seventh season. ABC made the announcement Thursday ahead of the season premiere on February 20. The Sony Pictures Television and ABC Signature co-production follows the life and career of Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) as he navigates the challenges and triumphs of his personal life and the early stages of a career in hospital medicine as an autistic person.
The Good Doctor Ends With Season 7
The Good Doctor joins Grey’s Anatomy spinoff Station 19 as one of two dramas ending their run on ABC this year with their seventh seasons. In a statement announcing the end of the series, co-showrunners David Shore and Liz Friedman joined their fellow executive producer Erin Gunn in expressing their pride in the series, noting that it has been a privilege to tell these stories and share positive messages about neurodivergent people. The trio expressed their gratitude to ABC, Sony, and the actors and crew, including Highmore, promising to give them the series ending they deserve.
Freddie Highmore Reflects On His Time As The Good Doctor
With the news of the cancellation, we are hopeful that The Good Doctor is ending because it felt like the right time in the story to do so, particularly since the series has remained popular throughout its run. The Nielsen ratings for its most recent season showed an average of 6.4 million weekly viewers, which doesn’t include streaming numbers. Streaming frequently accounts for an additional 30 to 40 percent more viewers in a series’ weekly viewership totals.
A Lasting Impact
Craig Erwich, president of Disney Television Group, praised The Good Doctor in his own statement, saying audiences have connected deeply with Dr. Shaun Murphy and his story, singling out Shore, Friedman, and Highmore as the primary reasons for the show’s success. Erwich also praised the cast and crew as well as ABC Signature and Sony, saying the series will have a lasting impact. It looks, however, like its impact will not include further iterations on the small screen.
Will ABC Deliver More Spin-Offs?
Because of its popularity, The Good Doctor was at one point set to have a spin-off, but the back-door pilot for The Good Lawyer that aired last season was not picked up by ABC for a series. Though it is based on a Korean series, The Good Doctor has very much come into its own and has stood out from its peers from its earliest episodes.
Freddie Highmore’s detailed and heavily researched portrayal has garnered praise from the beginning, and the series has been encouraging to many people in the neurodivergent community who are now surely hoping to see more such positive representation in media after the series ends.
