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R.J. Decker Season 2 on ABC: Release date, timeslot, cast, and Victor's murder

Inspired by the novel Double Whammy by Carl Hiaasen, the ABC series stars Scott Speedman as an ex-con turned private investigator

Guides by Avery Kaplan, Contributing writer

Published on Fri Jun 19 2026

Trust ABC's R.J. Decker to go out on a bang - or, in the case of the show's first season finale on Tuesday, April 28th, 2026, a murder. Seeming big-bad Victor Ochoa's murder, to be precise, setting in motion a new storyline for the crime series' second season. Fans can expect the show to return in fall 2026.

R.J. Decker is a crime drama series set in South Florida about a wrongfully convicted ex-con turned private detective. Inspired by the novel Double Whammy by Carl Hiaasen, R.J. Decker's titular role is played by Scott Speedman. The series also stars Jaina Lee Ortiz as Emilia "Emi" Ochoa, Kevin Rankin as Aloysius "Wish" Aiken, Adelaide Clemens as Catherine Delacroix and Bevin Bru as Melody "Mel" Abreu. Decker's cases range from the unusual to the bizarre, and that's not to mention the fact that he must avoid being sent back to prison.

The first season finale of the show set up what certainly looked like a victory for the long-suffering R.J., with the arrest of Bruce (Stephen Bishop) leading to Victor being put in jail for what looked like a long time... before someone killed him in the closing moments of the episode. Surprised? That's the point, says showrunner Rob Doherty: "It will give us a ton of storytelling runway as we move hopefully into a second season," he said of the shock ending. "We will hide the ball as often as we possibly can. With any mystery we're trying to solve, my hope is always that it's not who you were expecting."

Here's a first-look clip for R.J. Decker Season 1 from ABC:

R.J. Decker Season 2 will be part of ABC's fall 2026 line-up, with the network slotting the show in on Tuesday nights at 10pm Pacific and Eastern, and 9pm Central. Although ABC has yet to announce a formal premiere date as of writing, based on historical evidence, fans should expect R.J. Decker Season 2 to begin in late September 2026.

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Avery Kaplan: Avery lives and writes in Southern California. She is the co-author of Double Challenge: Being LGBTQ and a Minority with her spouse, Rebecca Oliver Kaplan. Avery is Features Editor at Comics Beat, and you can also find her writing on StarTrek.com, The Gutter Review, Geek Girl Authority, and in the margins of the books in her personal library.