Designing Women sequel headed to ABC

Designing Women is coming back to television.

Twenty-five years after its original seven-season run, the series is poised to return with a sequel on ABC, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The network has given original series creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and executive producer Harry Thomason (who is also Bloodworth-Thomason’s husband) a script commitment for a show that will follow the next generation of Sugarbakers and a group of young female designers at an Atlanta interior design firm.

The project has reportedly been in the works for months at ABC and will be produced by the same studio at Sony Pictures Television as the original.

“I’m very excited to be working with ABC,” Bloodworth-Thomason told THR. “And Sony has always been a great partner for Designing Women. Normally, I’m not a fan of reboots but Designing Women does seem to have the right feng shui for all that is going on right now. We could definitely have some fun.”

The original Designing Women, which was notable for its strong female cast, quippy one-liners, and unapologetic tackling of hot-button political, social, and gender issues, starred Dixie Carter, Delta Burke, Annie Potts, Jean Smart, and Meshach Taylor. It ran on CBS from 1986 to 1993.


Back in March, Potts, who currently stars on CBS’ Big Bang Theory spin-off Young Sheldon, told EW she’d be up for a Designing Women revival, so it seems likely familiar faces could appear on the sequel. “I would love that,” Potts said at the time. “I don’t know when I’d find the time for it, but I think that they could use a show like Designing Women — feisty smart women that didn’t take any B.S. from anybody.

“Every Monday night was a MeToo moment for us, and we were talking about it; we were very political,” she added. “I’m sad that there’s not such a strong voice, I don’t think, in any singular show. Nobody is doing what we did then. So yeah, if [Bloodworth-Thomason] wanted to write six episodes and do it in my hiatus, I would be there in a minute.”

By MAUREEN LEE LENKER, September 13, 2018