‘9-1-1’ Canceled by Fox After 6 Seasons, Picked Up by ABC to Tell More ‘Heart-Racing and Uplifting Stories’
The 118 is on the move! Ryan Murphy’s first responder series 9-1-1 has been canceled by FOX after six seasons — and already found a new home.
“Thanks to the creative drive of Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Tim Minear, as well as the talented cast, 9-1-1 has been one of the most defining and original dramas on network television over the last six seasons and we are honored to bring it to the esteemed group of series on ABC,” Craig Erwich, the president of Disney Television Group, said in a Monday, May 1, statement. “It’s a privilege to keep 9-1-1 in the family with 20th Television production, and we look forward to telling more heart-racing and uplifting stories about these beloved characters on our air.”
9-1-1, which premiered its first season in January 2018, follows a group of Los Angeles-based first responders across the fire, police and emergency operator departments. Angela Bassett, Peter Krause, Oliver Stark, Kenneth Choi, Aisha Hinds and Ryan Guzman star on the fan-favorite series.
“It’s not a strict procedural, you know, I always think of it as a comic book about first responders come to life,” Krause, 57, exclusively told Us Weekly in January 2021 of the series, which he also executive produces. “You could easily take some of the shots and some of the storylines of 9-1-1, put it into a comic book form and it would make perfect sense.”
Season 1 of 9-1-1 also starred Connie Britton, who exited after its first finale. Jennifer Love Hewitt later joined the show in season 2, playing Stark’s character’s TV sister.
“[My daughter, Autumn, was] studying emergency situations in school the other day and she was like, ‘Oh, if you get in an emergency situation, just call my mommy. She’s not going to help you. She’s going to send someone else to do it,’ and I was like, ‘Thanks a lot, babe,’” the Can’t Hardly Wait actress, 44, previously told Us in August 2019 of joining the series as Maddie Kendall. “She asked me, ‘How come you always answer the phone, but you don’t actually help anyone?’”
Hewitt — who shares three children with husband Brian Hallisay — took a brief hiatus from 9-1-1 after giving birth to son Aiden in September 2021. Maddie ultimately returned during season 5 after welcoming her own child, daughter Jee-Yun.
“I knew when we started the storyline where it was going to end up. And taking the break to go have a real baby and then come back to it was strange and a little daunting,” Hewitt told Entertainment Tonight in March 2022. “It was really important to us to tell the real story. Postpartum depression has been done on other shows, it’s something that’s out there. It’s something that people talk about. But it’s usually a lighter version of what that looks like. Or the diagnosis is lighter than what Maddie has dealt with.”
She continued: “Hers is a really extreme version of what postpartum can cause in someone’s life, heightened by having a baby in a pandemic on the show and everything else that she’s been through as a character. So I was really excited and proud of the show and proud of Fox for really getting in there and telling this story for all the women who are out there that might be suffering from this at the moment or have had that in the past because it’s a real thing.”
9-1-1 season 6 currently airs new episodes on FOX Mondays, followed by spinoff 9-1-1: Lone Star on Tuesdays. The firefighter spinoff, which stars Rob Lowe, was renewed for season 5 by FOX.
