--- description: The superproducer, programming all of ABC's Thursday night, has found that nothing succeeds like excess. title: Shonda Rhimes' Thursday Night: Scandal, Grey's Anatomy image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc08792f52e00d76/6986a44013c79f0d31193f42/shonda-rhimes.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Welcome to Shondaland by [James Poniewozik](/author/james-poniewozik/) ## James Poniewozik Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 19, 2014 12:27 PM CUT  Executive producer Shonda Rhimes speaks onstage at the 'How To Get Away With Murder'' panel during the Disney/ABC Television Group portion of the 2014 Summer Television Critics Association at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on July 15, 2014 in Beverly Hills. Executive producer Shonda Rhimes speaks onstage at the 'How To Get Away With Murder'' panel during the Disney/ABC Television Group portion of the 2014 Summer Television Critics Association at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on July 15, 2014 in Beverly Hills.Frederick M. Brown—Getty Images by [James Poniewozik](/author/james-poniewozik/) ## James Poniewozik Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 19, 2014 12:27 PM CUT Beginning Sept. 25, superproducer Shonda Rhimes will take over a solid night of prime-time network TV in a way usually reserved only for pro sports. ABC airs Rhimes’ _Grey’s Anatomy_ at 8 pm ET, _Scandal_ at 9 and _How to Get Away With Murder_ (created by _Scandal_ co-producer Pete Nowalk) at 10\. Aw yeah, America! Are you ready for some _conspiracies, murder and romantic entanglements_? [My column in this week’s print TIME](http://time.com/3397088/shonda-rhimes-night-in-america/ "undefined") looks at what makes a Shonda show a Shonda show, and what Rhimes has that other network producers don’t (and would love to): --- > “” --- You’ll have to read the column (subscription required) for my take on Rhimes’ creative style. But anyone who gets three solid hours of programming on a major network is also a business success, and it seems to me that Rhimes has, in a couple of ways, used her art to overcome the problems facing big broadcast TV today. First and most obvious is that Rhimes’ shows have unlocked social media, which can either be a distraction siphoning viewers away or an attraction tying them to you. It’s not just about how Rhimes’ cast, and she herself, have used Twitter so well and actively; in a way her shows, and _Scandal_ in particular, are built for social media, with their OMG-ability and their sense of constant, crazy acceleration. It’s a way of making a scripted drama feel like an event, something you want to experience live. But also, with _Scandal_–and maybe with _Murder_ as well–she seems to have figured out one answer to the question of how broadcast networks can compete with the creative license of cable. At least since Tony Soprano came to HBO, there’s been a belief that cable protagonists have a freedom to embrace the dark side that network shows, with their broader audiences, don’t have. But Rhimes’ series–like, in a different way, _The Good Wife_–draw their strength from allowing their characters to be bad, or at least ethically flexible. The fact that you don’t know precisely what moral lines Olivia Pope and her gladiators won’t cross doesn’t make them unlikeable; it makes them interesting. (It’s also helped keep the show grounded in character even as the third season’s plot spun further into quasi-Alias territory.) As for _How to Get Away With Murder_: well, read the title–it’s taking moral compromise as a mission statement. Judging by the pilot (all I’ve seen so far) this show is a “maybe” for me so far. Viola Davis is as commanding as a pounding gavel, but the show still needs to establish that it has its own identity beyond “_Scandal_ goes to law school.” But it starts off fast, and we can judge from precedent, will only get faster. 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