Station 19 season 3 renewal debate: Is there a cause for optimism? Vote!

At the moment, what’s the state of a Station 19 season 3 renewal at ABC? Let’s just say not to sound any alarms, but we recognize why there’s been some concern. The firefighter drama was stuck on a lengthy hiatus this winter, it doesn’t necessarily receive a ton of promotion, and there hasn’t been too much public discussion about its future just yet. With a new programming head coming onto ABC in Karey Burke, there could be more changes than usual as she moves things around in order to suit her vision.

Even if there are some changes, just don’t expect Station 19 to be among the pieces on the move — and for some of the reasons that are outlined here.

The case for keeping it – The ratings may not be drop-your-jaw spectacular, but they are solid and comfortable for ABC. With almost a 1.0 live rating in the 18-49 demographic, season 2 is only down around 8% from the first season. It’s actually about even in total viewers! This is the sort of year-to-year retention most networks dream of and it’s hard to fathom a scenario in which ABC turns their nose up at a show that is actually performing well and delivering something that they are not really getting anywhere else.

Beyond just this, there’s obviously another key reason to keep it: The Grey’s Anatomy attachment. It’s valuable to have as many Shondaland properties as possible, and once and twice a year you can stage some sort of crossover with the two shows where you can bump up the ratings from Station 19 slightly. That’s not something else you can do with most of the other shows on the schedule.

Is there any cause for concern? – You could argue that ABC wanting to move A Million Little Things to this timeslot could cause some problems to Station 19, which does as well as it does in part because of its lead-in. Yet, we don’t envision ABC canceling it even if they don’t air it in the same timeslot next fall. They could always opt to either save it for midseason or move How to Get Away with Murder (which has been struggling as of late) somewhere else in the schedule in favorite of it getting the 10:00 p.m. timeslot.

Scoff at the lack of big coverage and revel in your favorite characters and rescues. Even if Station 19 may not be the most-buzzed-about show on ABC at the moment, it continues to burn steady and we don’t see it being extinguished anytime soon … at least so long as ABC continues to have some sense.

Do you want to see Station 19 renewed?

At the bottom of this article, there’s a poll for you to share your thoughts on the subject! (This is just for fun, but we like to gauge viewer enthusiasm for many shows this time of year — hence framing this within our Renewal Debate article series.)

New episodes of Station 19, at least for the remainder of the spring, are going to air Thursday nights at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time. (Photo: ABC.)