The Question, Thursday 9/25/14: Can ABC Get Away With a Third Straight Shonda Drama?

ABC's biggest night of the fall has finally arrived. Scandal is coming off of its first season as broadcast TV's top drama, and this Thursday lineup featuring three Shonda Rhimes dramas has been the network's biggest promotional focus all summer. Expectations will be high, as Scandal finished last season well and has surprisingly little competition. Tonight, we'll also get to see Scandal as a lead-in to another drama for the first time, and the Viola Davis drama How To Get Away With Murder seems like a good fit. Can ABC Get Away With a third straight Shonda drama? That's The Question for Thursday, September 25, 2014.

Scandal Last Season

3.6/3.05/3.4 (premiere/avg/finale)

It's another Question that is not just about interest in the show but also about interest in the lead-in. Murder is not technically a spin-off, but it looks like such a good companion that it could attain the same kind of 85%ish retention as a spin-off would get (at least for tonight). And interest in the Scandal lead-in could well be very near or even at series high levels. Scandal showed little sign of a slowdown last season, and the promotion for this "TGIT" lineup has been pretty crazy. I'm not sure Murder has quite enough to match the biggest new drama premieres of the week (Gotham and Scorpion at 3.2), but it may be very close.

How To Get Away With Murder Over/Under: 3.05.

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