Why The Good Doctor's 100th Episode Has Been Postponed

ABC's medical drama "The Good Doctor" premiered in 2017 and has aired consistently ever since, maintaining an average rate of one season per yer. Season 6, then, kicked off in late 2022 and should conclude in the first half of 2023.

While the series' popularity among viewers may be significant enough to sustain its continued release, fans of "The Good Doctor" aren't shy about viewing the show through a critical lens. For instance, some "Good Doctor" fans question its doctors' ethics, taking note of behaviors that would get real-life doctors in trouble. Some viewers even criticized "The Good Doctor" Season 4 outright, characterizing it as disappointing after its final episode first aired.

Ultimately, these amount to quibbles from a fanbase otherwise invested in the way "The Good Doctor" builds on the time-honored medical drama genre. In fact, plenty of fans were sad to learn that ABC delayed "The Good Doctor" Season 6, Episode 6 — its 100th episode overall — from its planned November 7 release date. Unfortunately for these fans, their wait became a little bit longer when, on November 14, ABC altered its programming once again, postponing "The Good Doctor" Episode 100 for the second week in a row.

After an initial one-week delay, the 100th episode of "The Good Doctor" was supposed to premiere on November 14, two weeks after Season 6, Episode 5 aired on Halloween night. However, as recounted by TVLine, ABC decided to alter its programming schedule that evening just hours before the usual "Good Doctor" timeslot in order to air an interview with former vice president Mike Pence. ABC likely wanted to ensure this interview aired during primetime hours due to its being the first interview with Pence since the January 6, 2021 insurrection.

Preempting programming — which describes interrupting regularly-scheduled programming in order to broadcast timely news — is nothing new for major TV networks. For example, in June of 2022, CBS, NBC, and ABC all committed to altering their morning schedules to air the Jan. 6 committee hearings in the U.S. House of Representatives as they took place live (via CNN). Local networks in cities in which this is an issue must also interrupt broadcasts to air tornado warnings, for instance (via The Vane).

Currently, "The Good Doctor" Episode 100 is scheduled to premiere two weeks late, on November 21, at 10 pm EST/9pm CST.