Scandal season 6 gets premiere date, trailer

Gladiators, you won’t have to wait much longer for the return of OPA.

Scandal‘s sixth season will debut Thursday, Jan. 19 at 9 p.m. ET, marking the return of the TGIT lineup to ABC. Grey’s Anatomy and How to Get Away with Murder will also return from winter hiatus that night after their midseason finales on Nov. 17.

The election-themed fifth season capped off with the reveal of the presidential candidates and their running mates: Republican nominee Mellie Grant (Bellamy Young) and vice-presidential choice Jake Ballard (Scott Foley) vs. Democratic hopeful Francisco Vargas (Ricardo Chavira) and his VP Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry).

As EW exclusively first reported, the sixth season will pick up after the general election. “We are basically going to start our season on election night,” executive producer Shonda Rhimes says. “Yes, it is going to play into our season, but we’re not going to spend our time playing an election.”

The ABC political fixer drama was pushed to midseason as its star Kerry Washington was pregnant with her second child. In its place, the network slotted soapy series Notorious, which stars Piper Perabo and Daniel Sunjata. But after lukewarm ratings, ABC cut the legal drama’s initial episode order from 13 to 10 episodes, though the network emphasizes the show is not officially canceled.

Watch the season 6 trailer for Scandal above.