Detroit 1-8-7: Will It Be Back or Just Cancelled?

On Tuesday, ABC pre-empted Detroit 1-8-7 with a special edition of 20/20 in which Diane Sawyer interviewed Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford’s husband about the Tucson shooting. Based on the preliminary ratings for the program, ABC made a good choice. It attracted a 1.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 6.18 million total viewers. While those aren’t great numbers, they’re a 30% improvement over last week’s episode of Detroit 1-8-7 (1.0 in the demo with 5.05 million).

Next week, the cop drama will be replaced by the annual State of the Union address. Right now, Detroit 1-8-7 is scheduled to return on February 1st but one has to wonder if that will actually happen. ABC has a track record of pre-empting low-rated shows with the intention of bringing them back but it just never happens.

The network has ordered 18 installments of Detroit 1-8-7 and 12 of those have aired so far. It would seem like a waste not to air the remaining six but the same could be said for the leftover seven episodes of The Whole Truth. If ABC can keep coming up with specials that will perform better, we may likely have seen the last of low-rated Detroit 1-8-7.

What do you think? Will Detroit 1-8-7 return to the regular schedule or lost in hiatus and cancelled?