‘Doctor Odyssey’ Remains at Dock, Even as ABC Insists It’s Not Canceled

Doctor Odyssey won’t be setting sail for a second season — for now, and maybe not ever. But ABC continues to maintain the series hasn’t been canceled, even as its cast is on the verge of being free to pursue other work.

The series, co-created by Ryan Murphy, Jon Robin Baitz and Joe Baken, was the only scripted ABC show whose future was up in the air as the 2024-25 season came to a close. ABC has repeatedly said that it’s still weighing the show’s future: Disney Television Group president Craig Erwich told The Hollywood Reporter in May that “We’re continuing to have creative conversations with Ryan, and we’ll talk to him about what the next chapter looks like.”

Yet as those conversations were happening, Doctor Odyssey’s sets were being struck, sources tell THR, and contract options for the cast are set to expire Monday. Those things almost always point to a show’s cancellation — something director and executive producer Paris Barclay seemed to acknowledge on social media over the weekend. Yet ABC and 20th Television, the Disney-owned studio that produces the series and where Murphy is based, haven’t moved off the “discussing its future” line.

Murphy’s eponymous company has plenty of business with Disney, of course, including ABC’s 911 and its forthcoming spinoff 911: Nashville, which will fill the same Thursday-night slot in the schedule this fall that Doctor Odyssey did last season. Murphy also produces a host of shows for FX and Hulu, and sources cited his workload as one of the factors behind Doctor Odyssey’s limbo status.

A source compared Doctor Odyssey’s handling to the way broadcasters often treat unscripted shows — formal cancellations for reality series tend to be rare, and formats can be revived sometimes years after they last aired (a la Fox’s upcoming Fear Factor reboot and ABC’s own Match Game revival). But for a network scripted series, which operate on stricter timetables than those at streamers or cable outlets, Doctor Odyssey’s situation is uncommon, to say the least.

Doctor Odyssey — which stars Joshua Jackson as a doctor on a cruise ship — drew a decent-sized, but not world-beating, audience in its first season, averaging 7.74 million viewers across all platforms over 35 days. It ranked in the middle of the pack for ABC and 64th across all of TV (including streaming-only shows), according to Nielsen’s 35-day ratings.

The series is also the subject of a lawsuit by crew members over alleged sexual harassment and retaliation on the show’s set.

In the lawsuit, Caroline Mack, Alicia Haverland and Ava Steinbrenner claimed they were subject to an “unchecked campaign of sexual harassment” which saw their supervisor, assistant props master Tyler Patton, bombard them with sexual comments and unwatched touching. They also note that they were fired after complaining about the alleged misconduct. 

Along with Jackson, Doctor Odyssey also stars Phillipa Soo, Sean Teale and Don Johnson. The first season also featured a slew of high-profile guests ranging from Shania Twain to John Stamos, along with a 911 crossover that resulted in some of Doctor Odyssey’s best on-air ratings of the season.

Doctor Odyssey is produced by 20th TV in association with Ryan Murphy Television. Murphy, Baitz and Baken executive produced the first season with Jackson, Johnson, Eric Paquette, Alexis Martin Woodall, Eric Kovtun, Scott Robertson and Nissa Diederich. Barclay served as director and EP.