Crossover November: Could ‘The Fosters’ and ‘Switched at Birth’ team up effectively?

For the second edition of our Crossover November series, we thought it would be interesting to take a look at two shows that really seem ripe for some sort of episode or special: “The Fosters” and “Switched at Birth.” Both shows are on ABC Family, both have young casts, and the tone of them is relatively similar. Given that they could benefit in the ratings from such an idea, the question that we are really wondering is why this is something that has not been explored further.

The case for a crossover – From the standpoint of storytelling, there’s a lot of interesting stuff to be mined here. Both shows are about overcoming obstacles and finding common group, and there is something that the characters could learn from people on the other show. For example, while Bay and Daphne have certainly had a complicated upbringing and went through some shocks thanks to the switch, their circumstance is at the same time different than many foster children. They could start to appreciate their lives further in seeing what Callie, Mariana, and some of these characters have gone through. Conversely, the characters on “The Fosters” could benefit from learning more about the deaf community, and appreciate the gift of hearing that they have.

We’ve already mentioned that this is logically a crossover that would make sense, so let’s explore the ratings implications further. Both of these shows get good publicity from within ABC Family, but beyond that, we’re not entirely sure they get much play in the mainstream media. Any change that you have to potentially attract more viewers is a chance worth taking.

The case against a crossover – The easy argument you can make is that the audiences for the two shows may be different enough that it wouldn’t quite work. For superhero shows, everyone sort of understands The Flash so even if you don’t watch the show, it doesn’t take much effort to jump aboard a crossover story. For “The Fosters” and “Switched at Birth,” it may be tough to explain to someone who doesn’t watch one of the shows who someone is and why they matter. There is so much backstory that it could be confusing. Thanks to that, there is a risk and you should really only do it if you are 100% certain that it would work. It may also be better to just do a small crossover, where one character from a show comes over to the other.

Do you think that a crossover between “The Fosters” and “Switched at Birth” could work, or do you think they are better off staying separate?