A Super Bowl lead-out is the closest thing broadcast television still has to a launch pad, and ABC knows exactly what one can do. The last time the network carried the game, Grey’s Anatomy, then a hot second-season drama, followed it with the first half of a bomb-themed two-episode arc that became one of the most talked-about lead-out programs in the event’s history. Now ABC is reaching for the same playbook with High Potential, the Kaitlin Olson crime series it treats as its flagship.

As Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva first reported, High Potential will air immediately after Super Bowl LXI on ABC and Disney+, and the parallel goes beyond the slot. Like Grey’s Anatomy, the show is planning a two-parter, Andreeva reports: the post-game episode is the first half and ends on a cliffhanger, resolved in the second half in the series’ regular slot the following Tuesday. Olson broke the news herself, in character as Morgan in front of the show’s signature murder board, in a promo that ran on air and online during Monday Night Football.

The numbers explain the choice. High Potential finished the 2025/2026 broadcast season as the No. 1 show among adults 18-49, with a 3.35 rating, and No. 3 in total viewers, with 16.01 million over 35 days of viewing across ABC, Hulu, Hulu on Disney+ and digital platforms. And, as Grey’s Anatomy was then, it is still early in its run.

The streaming side is new. Because the game will air on ABC, ESPN and Disney+, the episode will stream on Disney+ as well, the first time High Potential appears there outside the bundle. Its usual streaming home is Hulu, which carries next-day episodes and earlier seasons.

Created for American television by Drew Goddard and based on the Franco-Belgian series HPI (Haut Potentiel Intellectuel), the show follows a single mother with an exceptional mind whose unconventional knack for solving crimes pairs her with a by-the-book seasoned detective. Olson, best known as Sweet Dee in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, leads a cast that includes Daniel Sunjata, Javicia Leslie, Deniz Akdeniz, Amirah J, Matthew Lamb and Judy Reyes. 20th Television produces, with Goddard, Sarah Esberg, new showrunners Nora and Lilla Zuckerman and Olson as executive producers.

Super Bowl LXI is set for Sunday, February 14, 2027. The post-game episode will not open the third season: for the first time in its run, High Potential is absent from ABC’s fall schedule, and it is expected back earlier, likely in January.

ABC has split a drama across the Super Bowl before, with The Practice in 2000 and Grey’s Anatomy in 2006, when the first half drew 38.1 million viewers. This time the cliffhanger only has to hold its audience for two nights, until Tuesday.

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