The 'Abbott' and 'It's Always Sunny' crossover episode premieres in January 2025
Abbott Elementary will come back in a big way following a break for the 2024 holiday season. According to an announcement from the network, the Emmy Award-winning series' midseason return on Jan. 8, 2024, will be none other than the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia crossover episode.
That means Janine Teagues, played by Abbott Elementary creator and showrunner Quinta Brunson, will, along with Gregory (Tyler James Williams), Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph), Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter), Jacob (Chris Perfetti), Ava (Janelle James), and Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis), come face to face with Sunny's Mac (Rob McElhenney), Frank (Danny DeVito), Deandra (Kaitlin Olson), and Charlie (Charlie Day).
As for what viewers can expect, Abbott Elementary executive producers Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker previously told Variety the entire It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia cast will appear. "We got the whole gang, the 'A' story, 'B' story, 'C,' 'D,' it's all [of] them" Schumacker said.
However, Day's character, in particular, will get a lot of screen time. "Charlie Day's character has a pretty significant storyline in our episode," Schumacker added, saying the Sunny cast members will "just feel like other guest stars on the show."
Noting Day and McElhenney were "super game for everything," he shared that "concerns that we had about the tones of the shows butting against each other were alleviated the second we started filming with Charlie."
As for Abbott characters showing up on It's Always Sunny, Halpern said: "We can't say too much about that yet." So the 30-minute episode of Abbott in January may not be the only time the two Philadelphia-set comedies come together.
Halpern and Schumaker went on to credit Brunson for the idea of a crossover episode. It came from the Abbott creator's love for sitcoms and started to become a reality after seeing McElhenney at an event.
"In most comedy writers rooms, you start the day by sh**ting on other shows that are on TV," Halpern said. "But that's not Quinta at all. Quinta comes in and talks about [the] TV she loves. She has watched every sitcom, and she loves being excited about sitcoms."
"'Sunny' is like a formative show for comedy writers, and so it was like the chance of, 'one of the shows that we all love, we have a chance to play for a little bit in their sandbox,'" he continued. "And it was born from Quinta loving sitcoms and being like, 'I want to do stuff with other sitcoms that I think are so funny.'"
Abbott Elementary airs every Wednesday night on ABC. Episodes are available to stream a day later on Hulu.