Drew Goddard, the creator of ABC’s crime drama High Potential is sharing how challenging it really was to work on the show. High Potential Season 1 premiered on September 17, 2024, and drew in 11.49 million viewers across all platforms in the first three days. The show has become ABC’s highest-rated drama in nearly four years. But bringing it to the screens wasn’t as easy as it might seem.
While speaking with Variety, Goddard confessed that nailing the right tone in a show’s first season is always tough, and High Potential was no different. The series creator shared that striking the perfect balance between humor and drama was the trickiest part. In Goddard’s words: “Tone is everything.” He added that he wanted the show to be incredibly silly and heartbreaking at the same time, which took some time for the rest of the team to figure out.
High Potential also faced a development setback when Rob Thomas stepped down as showrunner and Todd Harthan was hired to replace him. Now, while Goddard wrote the pilot, he knew that he did not want to be the showrunner. The creator explained that he does not have the patience to be thorough with the technical aspects required to create a police procedural. In his exact words: "Half the people in this show would be dead if I were in charge." This is why he brought on Hartan, who was excited to take over that responsibility.
‘High Potential’ Is Winning the Ratings Game
Since its premiere, High Potential has become ABC’s most-watched new series in six years. The show follows a single mom named Morgan (Kaitlin Olson) who has a natural talent for solving crimes, which leads her to form an unusual partnership with Detective Karadec (Daniel Sunjata). The ensemble cast of the show also features Javicia Leslie, Deniz Akdeniz, Amirah J, and Matthew Lamb in prominent roles. Each episode of the show follows Morgan and Karadec as they solve a new case while dealing with their personal lives on the side.
The former holder of the time slot, The Good Doctor Season 7 had an average of 5.11 million viewers. On the other hand, High Potential Season 1 has garnered 6.6 million total views. As reported by TV Line, the audience for the crime drama is up 40% compared to The Good Doctor.
High Potential Episode 5, which aired on October 22, 2024, attracted a total of 6.83 million viewers over seven days of linear viewing. This marked ABC earning the top spot in the Tuesday night scripted lineup for the first time in four years. The show returned for the second half of Season 2 on January 7, 2024. According to Harthan, the upcoming episodes are going to be more exciting and mysterious than ever, with storylines that will rip the fans’ hearts out, as reported by TV Line.
New episodes of High Potential air every Tuesday on ABC. The show is also available to stream on Hulu.
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A single mom with a brilliant but unconventional mind becomes an unlikely crime-solving partner to a by-the-book detective. Her unique ability to piece together clues that others overlook makes her indispensable to the LAPD Major Crimes unit, leading to an unorthodox but highly effective investigative duo.
Release Date September 17, 2024
Main Genre Drama
Seasons 1
Character(s) Daphne , Morgan , Lev Oz Osman , Ava , Elliot , Selena , Karadec , Lieutenant Melon , Lin , Darius Farzan , CSI Tech , Regina , Anne Davis , Kyle , Letty Acosta , Lenore Donovan , Monica Davis , Brian Dimon
Creator(s) Drew Goddard
Network ABC
Streaming Service(s) Hulu
English (US) ·