ABC Sticks with Wednesday Comedy Block, Adds Muppets to Tuesday

NEW YORK: The Muppets leads off the Tuesday night lineup for ABC's 2015-16 prime-time schedule, which sees its Wednesday comedy block and Thursday Shonda Rhimes series staying in place.

Mondays will also stay the same, pairing Dancing with the Stars with Castle.

Tuesdays will be led by The Muppets, returning to prime time with a documentary-style show. The new series will give a lead-in to Fresh Off the Boat and Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The freshman drama Quantico, about a group of recruits training at the FBI Quantico Base, will cap off the evening in the 10 p.m. slot.

The Wednesday night comedy lineup of The Middle, The Goldbergs, Modern Family and black-ish will again be in place for the 2015-16 schedule. Nashville returns to its 10 p.m. time period as well.

The powerhouse lineup of Shonda Rhimes dramas, Grey's Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder, maintains its Thursday placement.

On Fridays, the returning comedy Last Man Standing holds on to its 8 p.m. position, leading into the new comedy Dr. Ken, featuring Ken Jeong (Community, The Hangover). The rest of the evening sees the return of Shark Tank and 20/20 to their respective 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. slots.

Football takes over the Saturday night lineup for the fall. Sundays will again be led by Once Upon a Time, with two new series following: Oil and Of Kings and Prophets. The drama Oil, which gets the 9 p.m. slot, spotlights a family in North Dakota during an oil boom, while Of Kings and Prophets, in the 10 p.m. hour, is an epic Biblical saga.

ABC has held many of its new series for midseason. Among them, The Catch, from Shondaland’s Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers, is a new thriller about a fraud investigator who is about to get scammed by her fiancé. Also a thriller, The Family follows the return of a politician's young son who was presumed dead after disappearing for more than a decade. The network has also moved forward with Wicked City, set in L.A. in the 1980s, a time of rock "n" roll and cocaine-fueled partying.

In the way of new comedy, The Real O'Neals promises a fresh take on a seemingly perfect Catholic family who begin a new, messier, more honest chapter of their lives. A series based on the hit movie Uncle Buck is coming to ABC, this one starring Mike Epps.

ABC is also planning to bring back American Crime, Marvel's Agent Carter and Secrets and Lies for second seasons. Galavant is getting a second season as well.

Alternative series returning to ABC include The Bachelor, for season 20, and the Shark Tank companion show Beyond the Tank.

Paul Lee, the president of ABC Entertainment Group, commented: “Our new slate of shows continues the momentum from last year. ABC was the most buzzed-about network, and the only major network to hold on to its audience and to grow in the target demo. Our 2015-16 schedule, with new shows and returning favorites that reflect our commitment to world-class storytelling, will solidify ABC’s place as the network that raises the bar for what viewers expect from broadcast television.”