‘Once Upon a Time’ season 6, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ season 13 may not have enormous hiatuses

If there is one thing that has become somewhat of a defining characteristic of ABC over the years, it is that they have divided up several of their shows into fall and spring halves. Take a look at programs such as “Agents of SHIELD,” “Once Upon a Time,” “Quantico,” and “Grey’s Anatomy” that have definitive halves in the way in which they are aired. Often, the network has used the hiatus in between to air some fill-in series, but the results have not worked that well. Shows that aired in those hiatuses (“Agent Carter,” “Galavant”) have not score huge ratings, and we’ve seen shows have big drop-offs in the spring. Look at “SHIELD” for a prime example.

It may be for all of these reasons that ABC is now looking at going about things a different way. Speaking (per TVbythenumbers), new programming head Channing Dungey made a point of saying that there are some schedule changes coming under her watch:

“We’re not doing as big a gap strategy as we may have done in the past … There will be certain [shows] that have slightly longer breaks and some with very short breaks. I would prefer not to have big gaps.”

This is no guarantee that a show like a “Once Upon a Time” will change much, but it’ll be interesting to see. For it in particular, it’s almost in a lose-lose situation in terms of the schedule. If they bring it back before March, they have to deal with things like awards shows and NFL football; however, if they wait until March, the run the risk of people forgetting about the show.

If you missed it, ABC has already released their full schedule for the fall! You can check that out over here, or sign up to secure some other TV news on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: ABC.)