So many shows succumb to the dreaded sophomore slump, and High Potential was sadly not the exception to that rule.
High Potential Season 2 wrapped up earlier this year with the promise of big changes, and after hearing who will be shepherding the series into Season 3, I’m cautiously optimistic.
Deadline reports that Nora and Lilla Zuckerman have been set as the new showrunners and executive producers of the Kaitlin Olson-led crime drama.
(Disney/Raymond Liu)
High Potential is one of the best shows on broadcast TV. There’s no question about that.
It manages to balance genuinely dark murder-of-the-week storytelling with a sharp comedic tone that most procedurals would struggle to pull off.
But High Potential Season 2 didn’t quite hit the same standard as its debut run.
For me, the biggest issue was the cases of the week.
(Disney/Bahareh Ritter)
They weren’t operating at the same level as High Potential Season 1, where even the most outlandish crimes still felt tight, inventive, and satisfying.
A lot of that may come down to the expanded episode order, which seemed to stretch both the standalone stories and the ongoing arcs thinner than the show can really afford.
High Potential Season 2 Had Too Much Filler
High Potential works best when it’s lean. It thrives when every episode feels like it matters, and when the weekly mysteries feel like events rather than placeholders between bigger beats.
That’s why the idea of a tighter 13-episode structure makes so much sense.
(Disney/Christine Bartolucci)
Less room for filler, more pressure on each case to deliver, and a clearer sense of momentum running through the season instead of it drifting in places.
That becomes even more important when you consider what High Potential Season 2 exposed. When the cases aren’t landing, the show’s rhythm starts to wobble.
And for a procedural built so heavily around its weekly storytelling, that’s not a small problem.
The good news is that Nora and Lilla Zuckerman feel like a genuinely smart fit for what High Potential needs next.
(Disney/Christine Bartolucci)
Both are no strangers to crafting stylized, self-contained mysteries with personality and bite. Poker Face is the obvious reference point, and for good reason.
The anthology structure allowed them to build fully realized one-off stories with rotating casts, but more importantly, every episode felt deliberate.
The mysteries weren’t just functional; they were designed to stand on their own.
That kind of discipline is exactly what High Potential has been missing when its weekly cases don’t land.
(Disney/Christine Bartolucci)
Even beyond that, their writing background — including work on projects like Scream 8 — points to a strong grasp of tone, structure, and genre storytelling that still finds room for humor and character.
That balance matters here. High Potential doesn’t need to become darker or more serious. It just needs more consistency in how it delivers its core idea week to week.
If Nora and Lilla can bring that level of precision to the series, there’s a real chance High Potential Season 3 sharpens everything that Season 2 let slip.
And if that happens, High Potential might finally lock into the version of itself it’s been aiming for since the beginning.
(Disney/Raymond Liu)
Over to you, High Potential Fanatics! Are you cautiously optimistic about the looming creative reset?
What do you think needs to change the most about the ABC hit? Are you down for longer or shorter seasons?
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