A new president will be revealed when "Scandal" returns to ABC for its sixth season.
The plot for season 5 delved into the presidential election that almost mirrored the real-life 2016 U.S. presidential elections. The race will determine who among the candidates will replace President Fitz Grant (Tony Goldwyn) in the White House after his term.
But when asked if the show will continue featuring the elections in the upcoming season once it begins early next year, executive producer Shonda Rhimes told Entertainment Weekly that the answer could be a yes and a no.
"We are basically going to start our season on election night, Rhimes explained. "Yes, it is going to play into our season, but we're not going to spend our time playing an election."
This means that season 6 will omit the campaign period and go straight to the announcement of the election results. But it still remains unclear if the next POTUS will be the Republican candidate and former First Lady Mellie Grant (Bellamy Young) and that her vice-presidential candidate Jake Ballard (Scott Foley) will be declared the winner, or if the Democrat Francisco Vargas (Ricardo Chavira) and his partner Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry) will take over the presidential and vice presidential posts.
Meanwhile, it was also revealed that "Glee" alum Jessalyn Gilsig will replace Joelle Carter as Scott's wife Vanessa Moss when season 6 airs in the midseason schedule of ABC.
The recasting reportedly came after Carter was tapped to play a major role in the new "Chicago P.D." spinoff called "Chicago Justice." However, it remains unclear if Gilsig's Vanessa will be seen in a multiple episode arc for the upcoming season.
The network pushed back the premiere date of "Scandal" season 6 and reduce the number of episodes from 22 to 16 because of the real-life pregnancy of lead star Kerry Washington.
ABC has yet to announce the official premiere date of "Scandal" season 6.
