The Good Doctor season 6: Do spin-off pilot ratings offer up hope?

After watching last night’s The Good Doctor episode, a.k.a. the backdoor pilot for The Good Lawyer, let’s make one thing clear. We really hope that this show gets picked up to series. While we will be the first to admit that the episode was somewhat formulaic and didn’t contain a ton of surprises, Kennedy McMann was fantastic as Joni and we don’t have enough lawyer shows on TV right now. We’ve been yearning for more ever since Suits went off the air.

So, for now, we’re at least heartened to see that the backdoor pilot fared reasonably well, at least in comparison to a number of The Good Doctor episodes this season. With just over 3.35 million viewers watching in the live+same-day metric, this is the most-watched episode in over a month (provided the number stays solid in final ratings) and it is also the fourth most-watched of the season. (One of the three episodes that fared better was the premiere, and that feels pretty obvious.) These numbers are, of course, are in addition to how the episode fares in DVR and streaming after the fact.

While at the end of the day this spin-off’s future will likely depend on what ABC wants out of their 2023-24 schedule, there is reason for hope. Clearly we are moving into an era where there is a real need for a lot of franchises, and viewers do enjoy shows that make them feel good to some extent. The Good Lawyer, much like the OG show, is inspirational, even if there are some struggles along the way.

The network does not have to hurry along an announcement here — technically, they have until May to formally figure this out, though it would be nice if they revealed it earlier. Technically, we should point out that The Good Doctor has not been renewed for another season yet, either, but we’re pretty hopeful that this is going to happen.

Related – What is going to lie ahead on the flagship show?

Following last night’s The Good Doctor episode, are you more excited about the potential spin-off?

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