“Abbott Elementary” will return to ABC for a fourth season.
The news comes was announced by William Stanford Davis, who stars in the series as Mr. Johnson, during ABC’s presentation at the Television Critics Association’s winter 2024 press tour.
The series returned for Season 3 on Feb. 7, reaching an average 2.8 million viewers according to Live + Same Day data from Nielsen. The Feb. 14 episode, titled “Gregory’s Garden Goofballs,” sees Gregory (Tyler James Williams) hesitate when kids start hanging out in his classroom at lunch, looking to him for advice as the “cool teacher.” Meanwhile, Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) is shocked to find Tariq (Zack Fox) is dating the mother of one of her students, and Janine (Quinta Brunson) and Jacob (Chris Perfetti) try to hire an ASL interpreter for a student in Jacob’s classroom.
“Abbott Elementary” was created by Brunson, who executive produces alongside showrunners Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker via their Delicious Non-Sequitur banner, director Randall Einhorn and Brian Rubenstein.
As a result of the Hollywood strikes, Season 3 featured a five-month time jump and a major plot twist for Janine that allowed Brunson to play her in a new way.
“Her hair is different. She’s dressing different,” Brunson told Variety. “We see immediately what kind of growth has happened for her in the past five months,” she says. “From what I’ve seen online or from people I’ve talked to, they have no idea. They’re not guessing what happens. And for people who have seen it already, there’s alarm on their faces.”
