'Scandal' season 6 air date, spoilers & update: Mellie drops out of presidential race? Season 6 debuts Jan. 19
The U.S. presidential election may be over, but the one on "Scandal" season 6 is still a couple of months away.
Earlier this month, ABC announced that its popular political drama/thriller will return on Jan. 19 along with the back halves of "Grey's Anatomy" season 13 and "How to Get Away with Murder" season 3.
Aside from the "Scandal" season 6 air date, ABC also dropped a new trailer for the series. It has previously been revealed that the season 6 premiere is set on election night and the new promo clip shows the presidential election results coming in. As fans recall, the two presidential candidates are Mellie Grant (Bellamy Young) and Frankie Vargas (Ricardo Chavira). Their vice presidential running mates are Jake Ballard (Scott Foley) and Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry), respectively.
In one of the climactic scenes in the season 6 trailer, Mellie argues with Olivia (Kerry Washington) and yells that she's done running for president. Could the former First Lady actually be removing herself from the presidential race? And why did a cottage blow up in front of Quinn (Katie Lowes) and Huck (Guillermo Diaz)? Will someone die?
"Scandal" has been on break since the previous season ended in May. Earlier this year, ABC announced that it had reduced the season order for "Scandal" to just 16 episodes from its usual 22. This led to speculation among fans that the network is preparing to put an end to the series.
But in an interview with AP this summer, Washington clarified that the shortened season had nothing to do with the show's end or falling ratings or even her second pregnancy; rather, 16 was just the number of episodes showrunner Shonda Rhimes needed to tell the season 6 story. It was not downsizing but more of a creative decision.
"She knows about how many episodes she needs left to get there," Washington said. "And that was her decision," she added.
"Scandal" season 6 debuts Thursday, Jan. 19, at 9 p.m. EST on ABC.