9-1-1 is on the verge of returning to primetime in the 2024 TV schedule with new episodes for the first time in nearly a year, but the hit drama will air on ABC rather than Fox this time around. The drama also isn’t holding back in its ABC debut, as early promotion for Season 7 revealed that Bobby (Peter Krause) and Athena (Angela Bassett) aren’t going to have an uneventful honeymoon cruise. Ahead of the premiere on March 14, Krause spoke with CinemaBlend about the upcoming cruise crisis, the practical effects used for a Poseidon Adventure-esque arc, and more!
The Season 7 premiere, called “Abandon ‘Ships,” has been a long time coming thanks to the WGA writers strike and SAG-AFTRA actors strike delays, despite ABC picking up 9-1-1 back in early May. That gave people plenty of time to watch and rewatch streaming via Hulu subscription, and Peter Krause name-dropped a classic movie when previewing the first new episode of 2024:
Well, people certainly love the show. They love how entertaining it is. There are some deeper things going on in the show, but you can bet that each week is going to be pretty entertaining and I think that this Poseidon Adventure emergency that we do this season eclipses everything, even the tsunami episodes that we did.
9-1-1 quite literally went Titanic for the tsunami disaster back in Season 3, and Peter Krause hyped the Season 7 cruise ship crisis as even bigger than that harrowing arc for Buck and Christopher. The trailer for the new season on ABC gives a taste of just what’s going to go wrong for Bobby and Athena, and it’s not hard to see why the star referenced The Poseidon Adventure! There are enough clues to show that they’ll be facing a human threat as well as Mother Nature on the high seas, though.
While we shouldn’t expect the show to cram everything in the first episode of the new year, duty will call for Bobby and Athena while they’re on what was supposed to be their long-delayed honeymoon. Krause explained what he knew and what he didn’t know about this storyline going in:
I learned pretty quickly when we did the airplane crash episode in the first season that we were probably going to be the biggest, craziest show on TV. And I guess the difference about this particular run is these first three episodes of Season 7 really are an action romantic comedy with some disaster thrown in there. Some pirates, Bitcoin. I've likened it to an overloaded plate of nachos for your brain.
Who says that pirates and a natural disaster in the Pacific Ocean can’t also be part of a rom-com kind of storyline? And who doesn't like nachos?! If any show can pull off a combination of genres in the midst of a crisis, I’d say that the nearly 100 episodes of 9-1-1 so far proved this one can do it. Krause continued:
I knew I'd be spending a lot of days soaking wet. That was for sure. I didn't know initially that we were going to have constructed the industry's largest roll room, inside of which they'd build the casino set, the casino aboard the ship. We had to act in upside down world for a while. I had to do some harness work, some stunts. It was a very exciting, but arduous filming process these first three episodes.
Apparently, 9-1-1 went the extra mile for some practical effects in the cruise storyline, based on Peter Krause’s reveal that the show built “the industry’s largest roll room.” A roll room is a rotating set, and the mention of “upside down world” seems like a great homage to The Poseidon Adventure. Of course, for as cinematic as 9-1-1 can be, it is still a weekly TV show to leave fans hanging from episode to episode. Krause explained the perks of premiere arcs that run for multiple episodes:
I love that we start every year with these disaster movies. Some have only been two episodes, but I think the most successful ones have spanned three episodes. And I think this is the most substantial story arc we've had for a season opener. It really does stretch the entirety of the first three episodes.
Luckily, the long wait for 9-1-1’s ABC premiere is nearly over and fans will get to see all of the work that Peter Krause, Angela Bassett, and the rest of the team put in for the cruise sequences. For a glimpse of what to expect on March 14, check out the Season 7 trailer below:
Tune in to ABC on Thursdays for new episodes of 9-1-1 at 8 p.m. ET, starting with the Season 7 premiere on March 14. It kicks off a mostly rearranged Thursday night schedule for the network, with Station 19 moving later to 10 p.m. ET for its final season after Grey’s Anatomy Season 20 at 9 p.m. ET. Bobby and Athena’s cruise ship crisis will only just begin its three-episode arc in the premiere, so be sure to watch or stream ASAP!
