Anyone else rea-hee-heally excited about the Scrubs revival like I am? The beloved medical sitcom is set to premiere on ABC early into the 2026 TV schedule and bring back quite a few familiar faces, including John C. McGinley as Dr. Perry Cox. It’s been 15 years since Scrubs wrapped its original nine-season run, and after reading McGinley’s about why the series was brought back, I’m curious to see how it plays out in a few months time.
In an interview with People, John C. McGinley said there was no question about him returning for the Scrubs revival, describing show creator Bill Lawrence (who’s also the creative mind behind Apple TV subscription-exclusive shows like Ted Lasso and Shrinking) as a “dear friend” of his and “this generation’s Norman Lear.” He also said that he credits the younger generation, including his own daughters, for Scrubs coming back, saying:
It felt strange because I had these young adults who come up to me now who are 25 and 30, I'm estimating, and they'll say, 'I grew up watching Scrubs.' And I'm like, 'Well, you were a kid.' And I think the same thing, how it impacted my girls. And they're like, 'Yeah, we loved it. We loved it. It was funny.' Great, great. Because that group has been so fanatical that it's been the catalyst for a reboot, which is phenomenal.
I’m a little older than that age bracket, but I definitely can relate to those Scrubs fans, as I remember discovering the reruns on Comedy Central back in the mid-2000s and being instantly hooked. All these years later, I still rewatch the occasional episode with my Hulu subscription or revisit certain scenes on YouTube. It’s certainly deserves to rank as one of the best sitcoms of all time, and clearly the Scrubs fandom has endured strongly enough among the younger people if ABC was willing to put it back on the air, like John C. McGinley observed.
Now the question is, can the Scrubs revival experience the same kind of success as its predecessor? The TV landscape is a lot different than it was in the 2000s due to streaming services, and many of those younger fans probably won’t tune into Scrubs when it’s live on ABC, but afterwards when episodes are posted on Hulu. ABC will need to take that into account when tallying up viewership numbers and determining whether to move forward with another season. I’ll just keep my fingers crossed that the Scrubs revival proves to be more successful than the Frasier one was on Paramount+.
Scrubs premieres Wednesday, February 25 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. John C. McGinley will recur as Dr. Cox, as will Judy Reyes as Carla, Robert Maschio as Todd Quinlan, and Phil Lewis as Dr. Hooch. Zach Braff, Donald Faison and Sarah Chalke are all respectively reprising JD, Turk and Elliot as series regulars. The lineup of new faces includes SNL alum Vanessa Bayer, Loot’s Joel Kim Booster, Ava Bunn, Jacob Dudman, David Gridley, Layla Mohammadi and Amanda Morrow.
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