When Will ‘Abbott Elementary’ Season 3 Premiere? What We Know So Far

We’ve got good news and bad news: The bad news is that Abbott Elementary Season 2 is over, which means we’ll have to readjust to Wednesdays without Janine (Quinta Brunson), Gregory (Tyler James Williams), Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph), Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter), Jacob (Chris Perfetti), Ava (Janelle James), and Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis). The good news? ABC has already renewed Abbott Elementary for a third season, so with any luck class will be back in session again soon.

The Season 2 finale, “Franklin Institute,” followed our favorite Philadelphia educators on an eventful overnight field trip where a highly anticipated heart-to-heart between Janine and Gregory took place. Now that their feelings are out in the open, we’ll have to wait and see what Season 3 has in store for their relationship, along with the rest of the faculty and students of Abbott.

So when will Abbott Elementary Season 3 premiere on ABC? How many episodes will Season 3 contain? And what do co-showrunners Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker have to say about the upcoming season? Read on to learn everything we know about the future of the Emmy-winning comedy.

Will There Be An Abbott Elementary Season 3 on ABC?

Yes! As we noted, Abbott Elementary was already renewed for a third season ahead of its Season 2 finale. The network announced that the beloved comedy would be returning with another batch of episodes at the Television Critics Association’s 2023 winter tour. Now all that’s left to learn is when the show will be returning and how many episodes Season 3 will contain.

How Many Episodes Will Be In Abbott Elementary Season 3?

Season 1 of Abbott Elementary included 13 episodes, while Season 2 received a full order of 22 episodes. Though we have yet to learn an official episode count for Season 3, Patrick Schumacker, one of Abbott‘s co-creators and co-showrunners, said “There’s gonna be 22 [episodes], we hope.”

When Will Abbott Elementary Season 3 Premiere?

As of the Season 2 finale, no date has been set for Abbott Elementary Season 3’s premiere. But we can gain some insight into a potential timeline by looking at past premiere and finale dates. Season 1 premiered on December 7, 2021, and its finale aired on April 12, 2022. Season 2 premiered in September 2022 and concluded on April 2023. So judging by the five-month gap between the Season 1 finale and the Season 2 premiere, we could possibly see new Abbott episodes as early as September 2023. Considering various factors play into premieres — including a potential writers strike on the horizon — there may be delays.

How Could A Potential Writers Strike Impact Abbott Elementary Season 3?

Abbott Elementary‘s writer’s room is set to reconvene on May 1, which is the same day the WGA’s contract expires. Since members overwhelmingly voted in favor of a strike if a deal is not reached before May 1, there’s a chance the strike could impact Season 3 of the show. Here’s what Halpern and Schumacker had to say when asked about a potential strike.

“The thing I would want to say is I think people think that writers are these really wealthy people who have this amazing job where they’re allowed to drive BMWs and live in fancy houses. And I would say for 90% of the members of the Writers Guild, they are living job to job and I think a lot them, especially the younger ones and especially people of color, are barely able to make ends meet because of the erosion by the studios of writing as a job,” Halpern said. “So I would just say that I hope that we are able to reach a fair agreement that for the first time in a long time values writers properly and allows our members to make a living in Los Angeles and be able to live here and raise a family, and someday own a home. I think that’s really important to me and Patrick and everyone on our writing staff. And I think that that is first and foremost the most important thing and hopefully it is resolved and we can go back to doing the thing we love, which is making Abbott Elementary.“

“On a pragmatic level, in the event of a strike, that could affect the amount of episodes in the season. In the last strike, if I recall, the example is like Breaking Bad did seven episodes. But that strike lasted three months or something like that. Knock on wood that a strike doesn’t happen, but if it has to happen, knock on wood that it can resolve very quickly, and we can go back in, and people won’t notice too much at home that anything different happened this year. But it is a distinct possibility should there be a strike,” Schumacker added.

What Will Abbott Elementary Season 3 Be About?

There’s no doubt that Abbott Elementary will continue to follow the daily lives of teachers and students at — you guessed it! — Abbott Elementary. But Halpern and Schumacker also teased a few specific storylines for us.

In regards to Janine and Gregory’s relationship, Schumacker said, “They’re not on the same page exactly, but Gregory’s accepted reluctantly what the determination was at the end, and I think that’s gonna keep up some of the dramatic tension in Season 3.”

And Halpern shared that the writing staff has another overarching theme in mind for Season 3. “You’ve sort of noticed that each season has a bit of a theme of public education and the things that teachers go through. The second season ended up talking about charter schools and the push and pull of those, and the first season was sort of about the challenges of being woefully underfunded,” he said. “And so I think we have an idea, we’ve talked with Quinta, and I think there’s a larger overarching idea that we’ve sort of landed on for Season 3 that I think is really interesting and I’ve never seen it on TV before.”

Decider will update this post as additional Season 3 details become available.

The first two seasons of Abbott Elementary are available to stream on Hulu.