“Abbott Elementary” is a comedy series that aired its first season on ABC. It quickly became a hit for the channel.
The series is about to make a splash at the Emmy nominations. So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about it.
- Abbott Elementary is an American mockumentary sitcom television series
- The series is created by Quinta Brunson for ABC
- It stars Brunson as a second grade teacher at Abbott Elementary, a fictional Black school in Philadelphia
- Tyler James Williams, Janelle James, Lisa Ann Walter, Chris Perfetti, and Sheryl Lee Ralph also star
- The series premiered as a midseason entry in the 2021–22 television season on December 7, 2021
- It was met with critical acclaim
- In March 2022, the series was renewed for a second season
- The second season is set to premiere on September 21, 2022
- A documentary crew is recording the lives of teachers working in underfunded schools
- One of the places they have decided to document is Philadelphia’s Willard R. Abbott Elementary School, a predominantly Black Philadelphia public school
- Conditions at the school are harsh and most teachers do not last more than two years
- Second grade teacher Janine Teagues and history teacher Jacob Hill are two of three teachers in a group of twenty to make it past one year
- They work with experienced kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard, second grade teacher Melissa Schemmenti, tone-deaf school principal Ava Coleman, and recent substitute hire Gregory Eddie
- On September 3, 2020, an untitled workplace comedy pilot starring Quinta Brunson landed a put pilot commitment at ABC
- In February 2021, ABC gave the project an official pilot order
- In March, Tyler James Williams, Janelle James, Lisa Ann Walter, Chris Perfetti, and Sheryl Lee Ralph were announced to star
- In May, the project was given a series order
- Filming began on August 16, 2021, in Los Angeles, California
- And concluded on November 5, 2021
- In August, three crew members tested positive for COVID-19 but production was not impacted
- In November, William Stanford Davis was confirmed to star
- The series premiered on December 7, 2021
- On March 14, 2022, the series was renewed for a second season
- On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 97%
- Based on 38 critics’ reviews
- With an average rating of 8.60/10
- The website’s consensus reads, “Abbott Elementary earns top marks for its empathetic yet sidesplitting critique of the U.S. education system, plus some extra credit for a deftly handled will-they-won’t-they dynamic”
- Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 78 out of 100
- Based on 15 critics
- Indicating “generally favorable reviews”
- Angie Han of The Hollywood Reporter said “[it] works well enough to deliver a consistent good time — and I suspect that given time, Abbott Elementary could blossom into something truly special”
- Han also said the first episodes “[are] a willingness to deal with class head on, while also finding humor in the characters’ situations”
- She concluded that Abbott Elementary is “crowd-pleasing”
- Including viewership recorded over a 35-day period through “linear and digital platforms” (known as MP35) after its original broadcast, the pilot episode on December 7, 2021, increased to a 2.4 demographic rating, with 7.1 million viewers
- ABC said the 300% increase was its “largest percentage growth for any new comedy premiere”
- The viewership of the second episode, “Light Bulb”, increased by 5.6 million viewers to 9 million after 35 days
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