When ABC announced its fall 2025 schedule, Ryan Murphy's freshman drama Doctor Odyssey was nowhere to be found. In fact, following the show's season finale, the network still has yet to announce whether it has been renewed or canceled (as of May 16). It's a rare place for a series that didn't debut midseason to be in, and with each passing day, season 2 seems unlikely.
Doctor Odyssey premiered in fall 2024 with a lot of mystique and excitement surrounding it. A lot of details about the show weren't unveiled when ABC first announced its pickup beyond a medical drama on a cruise ship from Ryan Murphy, For a lot of people (myself included), that was enough information to tune in. The excellent cast led by Joshua Jackson was simply an added bonus.
But as the season progressed, the stories went from wildly campy and fun to curiously drippy and dull. Anyone who's watched Murphy's work know that the follow through tends not to match the set up, but the promise for Doctor Odyssey was there. Now with its fate in question, there are three glaringly obvious but greatly unfortunate reasons why season 2 might not happen.
Ryan Murphy is busy with other projects
As we all know, Ryan Murphy makes a lot of television. Whether it's producing 9-1-1 and its upcoming new spinoff for ABC, Netflix's hit anthology series Monster, American Horror Story and other new FX shows in the works, or Hulu's Kim Kardashian legal drama All's Fair premiering this fall, Murphy has a lot on his plate to juggle.
Disney Television Group president Craig Erwich explained that Murphy's busy schedule has kept Doctor Odyssey season 2 talks ongoing beyond Upfronts:
"Doctor Odyssey is not on our schedule currently. We’re in talks with Ryan, and we really look to him about what the next chapter might be. Ryan’s extremely busy... 9-1-1, 9-1-1: Nashville… he’s doing All’s Fair, I know he’s working on a bunch of shows for FX that they’re really excited about, too."
Murphy's involvement differs from show to show, but he was heavily involved in the production of Doctor Odyssey, co-writing six of the first season's 18 episodes. Considering the breadth of shows he's currently working on, it could take a moment before Murphy decides whether the Odyssey has enough gas in the tank for season 2, a decision that seems to be on him.
Season 1 finale could be a series finale
After watching the season finale, did anyone else get the sense that the finale was crafted in way that could double as a series finale? While fittingly dramatic and outlandish per the show's tone, there was ultimately an "all's well that ends well" approach to the finale that's generally unbecoming of broadcast dramas vying for a renewal. There weren't any pressing cliffhangers!
Ultimately, it's a procedural at heart and there's always ways to dive back into the ship with these characters to drum up some drama. But the finale didn't really fight for another season or strike any sense of desire in the audience to want more. Rather than leaving us feeling anxious for the cruise ship to round trip right on back to our screens, we left feeling mostly satisfied.
The ratings aren't that great
Last but certainly not least, ratings will be the factor ABC looks at more closely than anything else, and sadly, Doctor Odyssey's ratings aren't overwhelmingly positive. They're nothing to give up on, but they're just middling. The show isn't in the top 20 ranking for broadcast shows in the all-important 18-49 demo and ranks fifth out of seven ABC dramas. Not bad, but not stellar.
It's hard to know if the show has picked up much ground with streaming on Hulu/Disney+, but if it had, we certainly would have heard about it the way we do with ABC's fellow freshman drama High Potential, which has been renewed for season 2. There's still a path to renewal for Doctor Odyssey, but it's a tricky one for sure as the show looks to overcome these three big challenges