In its second season, High Potential continues to be a big winner for ABC, as its viewership is currently #10 among scripted shows on the 2026 TV schedule, with only Will Trent topping it at the network. The combination of weekly twist-filled cases and various overarching plotlines (such as Roman’s mysterious whereabouts) continues to be a big draw for audiences, with star Kaitlin Olson as the inarguably biggest highlight. Knowing how much she brings to the table outside of her performance just makes her all the more impressive.
CinemaBlend spoke with showrunner Todd Harthan going into the back half of Season 2, and amidst the various plot points we discussed — from Morgan and Ludo’s break-up to Morgan’s inability to lie convincingly — I asked him what the biggest advantage has been to having Olson as the show’s keystone, and he had nothing but glowing words, starting with:
Oh, man, how much time you got? The biggest advantage is there's just nothing she can't do. I mean, it doesn't matter if it's anything, between comedy and drama and everything in between, she's got every tool on her belt. You just don't have to worry about her being intimidated by anything we script.
Olson long ago proved herself a comedic genius as Bir...er...Sweet Dee Reynolds on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and has also won viewers over on other shows like Hacks and the criminally short-lived The Mick. But across the past 26 years, the actress has only appeared in a limited number of projects that delve into other genres, while still obviously keeping one foot in the realm of laughs. Not that anyone could tell, such is her excellence in High Potential's more emotionally heightened sequences.
Kaitlin Olson is an executive producer on High Potential on top of being a star, and while that credit can sometimes just be a tack-on credit for hands-off execs, Olson goes the full nine yards to fulfilling her duties on that front. As Todd Harthan put it:
No matter what we write, when it gets to her, she always elevates and makes what we give her better. She just has this ability to, through her character's point of view, always sharpen that point of view and upgrade her journey within each episode. She's a very, very active participant when it comes to producing this show. What she does before we film these episodes is extraordinary.
The showrunner's thoughts echo what co-star Amirah J told me about Olson bringing her into the conversation to share thoughts on how realistic the mother-daughter dialogue is from a teenage girl's perspective. It sounds like that's the same approach the lead is bringing to her own dialogue (and possibly that of other characters), and I'm not trying to puff up anyone's egos here, but it does seem very obvious to me that additional script polishing takes place. Compare it to a lot of other hourlong broadcast series' dialogue, and it becomes even more apparent.
With all of those efforts made to put the finishing touches on the script, that's when Olson gets back into acting mode, and that's the talent that Harthan returned to in wrapping up his praise, saying:
So it's a lot of different things, but first and foremost, I mean, there's incredible versatility to what she does when she's in front of the camera.
Case in point, Olson's face seemingly went through the entire gamut of emotional responses during Morgan’s reaction to Karadec leaving for his date at the end of the episode “NPC." She went from helping her quasi-partner out with his former flame while looking happy about it to something far more wistful and potentially regretful, as if she also wanted to go out on that date with him. Episodes don't like that if there isn't a stellar lead there to anchor the moment, and Olson can anchor anything.
HIgh Potential airs new episodes Tuesday nights on ABC at 10:00 p.m. ET, and streams the next day via Hulu subscription.
