Just a day after the departure of co-showrunner Tim Hobert, fans of the revived sitcom Scrubs probably hoped for some good news. Well, they got it: in a social media post, ABC Studios announced that the series will return on Wednesday, February 25th on ABC. The series will stream on Hulu.
Much of the original cast of Scrubs — including Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke, John C. McGinley, and Judy Reyes — will return for the revival, which will pick up with J.D., Turk, and the rest of the Sacred Heart crew almost sixteen years after the original show’s March 2010 finale.
You can see the motion poster and release date announcement for Scrubs below.
Scrubs, which ran from 2001 until 2010 on NBC (except its final two seasons, which moved to ABC), starred Zach Braff as a talented and passionate but neurotic young doctor finding his footing at a teaching hospital. While the series is a broad comedy that features elaborate fantasy sequences, it also had a lot of heart and an attention to detail that made it a favorite with fans, critics, and medical professionals who improbably called it one of the most accurate medical shows on TV.
Scrubs had multiple “finale” episodes, with its final NBC episode being seen briefly as a series finale; a final J.D.-centric episode at the end of season eight; and finally, the “official” season nine finale.
The show’s ninth season is somewhat notorious; Braff and other main cast members took a back seat to a new, younger generation of doctors in what was seen as an attempt at a soft reboot that would add longevity to the show. In spite of some talented performers and great performances by Eliza Coupe and Kerry Bishé, the new characters failed to thrill audiences, and the Scrubs: Med School idea was abandoned after just 13 episodes.
After Scrubs ended, series creator Bill Lawrence went on to create a number of other popular series, including the cult favorite Cougar Town and Apple TV+’s mega-hit Ted Lasso. Several Scrubs actors worked with Lawrence on Cougar Town, including series star Courteney Cox. In an early episode, two Cougar Town characters were seen watching an episode of Scrubs, but later in the series, Lawrence brought the character of Ted Buckland (the late Sam Lloyd) to Cougar Town. In one episode, Buckland hilariously commented on how many of his new acquaintances reminded him of people from Sacred Heart.
After years of rumors (and a number of ads featuring Braff and Faison as best friends who are pretty similar to J.D. and Turk), Lawrence revealed in July that the series would be returning in the 2025-2026 TV season. The first episode went in front of cameras in September, directed by Braff.
Yesterday, co-showrunner Tim Hobert left the series, which will now be run entirely by Aseem Batra. Both worked with Lawrence on the original series. The split was due to creative differences, and Hobert will be credited on the first five episodes of Scrubs‘s revival. Lawrence has an overall deal with Warner Bros. TV, and so could not serve as showrunner but remains on board as an executive producer.
