We have some bad news for fans of ABC’s Alaska Daily.
The Hilary Swank drama has been bumped from its planned February 23 return.
Instead, the back half of the season will resume Thursday, March 2, at 10 p.m.
The reason for the switcheroo?
ABC wants to air the remaining episodes across consecutive weeks, which is probably for the best.
With the network’s revamped schedule, the series will return on March 2 and wrap up its freshman season on March 30.
Given the heavily serialized nature of Alaska Daily, having random breaks will not help the series build momentum.
Procedurals like NCIS and Law & Order can thrive with more than a few hiatuses because there’s very little connective tissue between episodes.
Alaska Daily stars Hilary Swank as Eileen Fitzgerald, a fiercely talented and award-winning investigative journalist who leaves her high-profile New York life behind after a fall from grace to join a daily metro newspaper in Anchorage on a journey to find both personal and professional redemption.
The series hasn’t particularly resonated in live + same-day results, but it has been a strong performer with online and DVR viewing factored in.
It currently ranks as ABC’s lowest-rated series in the demo (based on Live + SD viewing), losing around half of its lead-in Grey’s Anatomy’s demo results.
The cast also includes Ami Park as Jieun Park, Craig Frank as Austin Greene, Grace Dove as Rosalind “Roz” Friendly, Jeff Perry as Stanley Cornik, Matt Malloy as Bob Young, Meredith Holzman as Claire Muncy, and Pablo Castelblanco as Gabriel Martin.
It’s unclear at this stage whether the series will snag a Season 2 pickup, but it would probably need to overperform for these next five episodes to be in contention.
What are your thoughts on the delay for the midseason premiere?
Do you think it’s a good idea to air the episodes consecutively?
Hit the comments below.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.
