Last night, fans expected to see a new episode of The Good Doctor, but a rerun aired instead. Needless to say, viewers were not pleased as the new episodes had just returned after the Christmas break.
Only four new episodes had aired since the holidays before ABC decided to air a rerun. The good news is that The Good Doctor will return with a new episode next Monday called Risk and Reward.
ABC hasn’t officially revealed why it chose to do a rerun. However, it is possible that the network is trying to stretch out the season’s run.
The first season of The Good Doctor was 18 episodes and it ran from September to March. It’s possible ABC is trying to do the same for season two, as it is reportedly also 18 episodes long.
The same thing actually happened in 2018, as ABC didn’t air a new episode of The Good Doctor between February 5, 2018 and February 26, 2018. This also helped stretch out the 18-episode season, so it could cover some of the spring programming.
Networks sometimes factor intentional gaps into their seasons so they can move episodes around a bit and don’t end up running out of time to air all their episodes if there are forced preemptions — for example because of something political like the State of the Union address. If there aren’t enough natural preemptions, they are left with gaps in their schedule so are forced to air reruns.
Whatever the reason, many viewers were frustrated that they were being given another rerun last night.
“So tired of repeats and winter breaks and seasons ending early,” one viewer wrote.
“A rerun???? So infuriating,” “Didn’t this show just come back on after the “winter break?” Ridiculous!,” and “Why are you rerunning already?!?!?! We just got the season back!!!!” another commented on The Good Doctor’s Facebook post about Monday’s episode.
One piece of good news, though, is that The Good Doctor has been renewed for a third season. If season 2 is over in just three episodes, we can look forward to the new season potentially starting in September 2019. The renewal news didn’t include a specific episode count for Season 3.
The Good Doctor will return with a brand new episode next Monday, February 18, at 10/9c on ABC.