{"id":573223,"date":"2026-04-09T05:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T05:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/573223\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T05:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T05:14:08","slug":"janine-gregory-breakup-explained-by-quinta-brunson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/573223\/","title":{"rendered":"Janine-Gregory Breakup Explained by Quinta Brunson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t[This article contains spoilers from episode 19 of season five of Abbott Elementary<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\n\tLast Wednesday\u2019s \u201cApril Fools\u201d episode of Abbott Elementary was all fun and (stressful) pranks, but this week, there were noticeably fewer laughs between everyone\u2019s favorite teacher couple at the school.<\/p>\n

\n\tEpisode 19 of season five began with Gregory (Tyler James Williams<\/a>) and Janine (Quinta Brunson<\/a>) attempting to plan their first couple\u2019s trip after moving in together earlier in the season, but differences over their individual philosophies around money and time quickly turned the process from pleasant to painstaking, with Gregory wanting to book an Airbnb and make an eight-hour trek in a car to the Outer Banks to save money and Janine preferring direct flights, a hotel and spa treatments.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pair initially decide to change their vacation destination to Atlantic City as a happy medium, but Janine later approaches Gregory during the workday with a compromise she deems \u201ca bit more compromise-y,\u201d telling him she went ahead and bought their flights to the Outer Banks herself since money was the issue. Gregory calls the purchase \u201ca waste,\u201d Janine says Atlantic City was a \u201ccheap idea,\u201d and the argument spills over into the couple\u2019s home life, leading Janine to question how they can make their relationship work if they can\u2019t even figure out a simple trip. Gregory says they won\u2019t if they can\u2019t get on the same page, and Janine responds by saying maybe the two should break up.<\/p>\n

\n\tViewers don\u2019t exactly know what happens next, as both Janine and Gregory are left stunned into silence. However, Jacob (Chris Perfetti) receiving a text from Janine the next day that sends him hurling into a garbage can in front of Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis) appears to be confirmation that the two did indeed split.<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, Brunson talks with The Hollywood Reporter about Janine and Gregory\u2019s breakup, whether this could lead to any romantic developments with Dominic, the newest teacher at Abbott Elementary, played by Luke Tennie<\/a>, and preparing to hit the 100-episode mark of Abbott with the recent news of the ABC<\/a> sitcom\u2019s season six renewal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tMy first question is quite broad: Why?<\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.) I\u2019m sorry, that really cracked me up. I\u2019m trying to get an answer together. Did you have more to that?<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy a breakup\u2026 why now?<\/p>\n

\n\tBecause no one saw it coming. I think that\u2019s a great time to throw a stone at the settled earth. It was something I thought about from the beginning of this season. They\u2019ve been in a relationship for a while now, and we\u2019ve seen them be really great and go through the honeymoon phase, but I wanted to get under the surface a little bit about what could be going on with these characters and how, in relationships, things like this happen. We see it every day \u2014\u00a0couples who look kind of perfect from the outside. There can be things going on in that we don\u2019t know about, that they discover within their relationship.<\/p>\n

\n\tA few episodes before this one, when Janine and Gregory were deciding to move in together, I thought for a second that could be their undoing, but then they compromised pretty well and got a new place together. How did you decide a trip would be the impetus for their separation?<\/p>\n

\n\tBecause it was such a seemingly small thing. It felt like one of those things that can get so big, and you don\u2019t even know why. We talked about this a lot in the room about relationships and past relationships, current relationships, how you never know. It could be this one little thing that leads you into an argument. I\u2019m in my room, so I\u2019m just looking around, but, for instance, if one person likes to sleep with the TV on and the other person doesn\u2019t, this seems like a small thing, but before you know it, it could get really big and it\u2019s like, \u201cwait, why are we fighting right now?\u201d This small thing was actually a catalyst for possibly some larger discussions that need to happen between two people who are trying to spend a lot of time with each other and possibly their lives together.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo that point, I wondered if, when Janine says, \u201cWell, maybe we should break up,\u201d did she really mean that?<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom watching, you can see that she surprised herself. I\u2019m not going to say whether she means it or not, but I think she surprised herself in saying it and wonders if she means it. But when she doesn\u2019t hear anything from Gregory, it makes her feel like, \u201cWhoah, okay.\u201d I think she was sitting there waiting for a protest, but didn\u2019t get one, which reinforced the fear that maybe it\u2019s true. Maybe we shouldn\u2019t [be together].<\/p>\n

\n\tWere there any other scenarios you considered instead of the trip possibly leading to a breakup between them?<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t remember. We landed on this, and I liked it. We probably kicked pitches around, because at that point we talked about this episode coming sooner. But this was the one [concept] I liked the most. It felt small enough and big enough at the same time.<\/p>\n

\n\tHaving talked about introducing this moment earlier, how did you decide where to place the breakup in the season?<\/p>\n

\n\tSometimes in network TV, it\u2019s a balancing act when it comes to what your show actually is about. Abbott is a show about teachers in a public school going through situations and making it happen every day for their students, and we want to stick to that engine. That\u2019s the engine that makes the show go. And there\u2019s also a balance of, \u201cI can\u2019t hold you when you can get locations, when you can get guest cast, when you can get how many days you have to shoot.\u201d All of this is a part of the production process. Also, scheduling. We were affected by a lot of scheduling this year. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Olympics were on; that pushes network TV to have an interesting schedule. I also didn\u2019t want this to happen at a time when we were then going to be off the air for three weeks. And I didn\u2019t want to come back to this either because that didn\u2019t feel fun to come back with this story. I wanted to have some fun first. I can\u2019t say enough of the real balancing act of figuring out when and where stories should come, and this felt like too big a one to be haphazard with and I didn\u2019t want it to last. For instance, if this was going on since episode eight, I don\u2019t think people would be having a good time right now.<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, we wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\n\tClearly. Your energy is so funny on the other end of the phone. I\u2019m cracking up. You\u2019re not happy with me.<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m just invested. That\u2019s all.<\/p>\n

\n\tOkay. I love it.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat can you tell us about episode 20? The title is \u201cNight Out\u201d which could go a lot of different ways after a breakup.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne thing that\u2019s going to happen is we\u2019re going to revisit one of the iconic locations of the show, which I think is really fun. It was fun for me anyway, and for us telling the story. You\u2019re going to see some very different sides of many of our characters, not just Janine and Gregory. I hope people enjoy it. I hope they just have fun. Let\u2019s just have fun, guys. Right?<\/p>\n

\n\tWell, speaking of fun, the unanimous opinion online is that last week\u2019s April Fool\u2019s Day episode was fantastic. Did you see the uproar over the April Fool\u2019s joke on social media about Janelle James<\/a> not returning?<\/p>\n

\n\tI did. First of all, I hate it because I hate pranks. I\u2019m actually very much Gregory in the show. I don\u2019t enjoy pranks. But the fact that people were so upset by it is just a testament to how important Janelle is to this show. Nobody would ever want to see that. And everyone who was tricked by it, was, rightfully so, upset as they should be. That is not happening. But it just goes to show you how much people love the character of Ava. And I agree with everyone. Ava is highly important to this show, just like everyone is in my eyes. They\u2019re all my children. It was a hoot. I\u2019ll say that.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe don\u2019t know how Janine will navigate singleness from this point on, but on a scale of one to 10, what are the odds of her getting back with Tariq [Zack Fox]?<\/p>\n

\n\tOh, my goodness. That\u2019s crazy. But hey, with Janine, I would say a five. You never know sometimes with that girl.<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m also curious about Dominic. Could there be anything romantic there, and will we see him again before the end of the season?<\/p>\n

\n\tYou will see Dominic again before the end of the season. We absolutely adore having Luke Tennie. He is wonderful. He\u2019s the hardest-working man in show business right now. The boy is everywhere. It was so funny when he first showed up, he was like, \u201cYeah, I\u2019m on The Pitt<\/a> too,\u201d and I was like, \u201cDamn, you really are working.\u201d But what\u2019s great is he deserves it. He\u2019s so fantastic, just an absolute joy to work with. And I\u2019m so happy that he is getting nothing but more exposure in this industry, so you will see him again. That\u2019s all I\u2019ll say, you\u2019ll see him again.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did Luke come to be on the show?<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat\u2019s crazy is we wrote the character of Dominic, and Luke auditioned, and the minute I saw his face, I barely needed to look at the audition tape. I was already a huge fan of him on Shrinking<\/a>. I knew that he would have what it took to pull this role off. He\u2019s incredible to me. I opened his audition tape and was like, \u201cYeah, I don\u2019t even know why I opened this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYou mentioned the show being an engine, which is something you told THR<\/a> in the past, that it\u2019s \u201calways been your goal to just maintain an engine that keeps rolling and keeps providing a high-quality comfort sitcom.\u201d Has coming up with fresh, new ideas gotten harder five seasons in, or do you feel like you have more possibilities now?<\/p>\n

\n\tI think season five felt more like, \u201cOkay, we\u2019ve built a lot over four seasons.\u201d And I felt like it was safe to say that we were going to get a season six, so it felt like, \u201cHow do we not pack everything into season five and save some good for season six?\u201d I got a lot of good stuff that I want to do, stories to tell, but we\u2019ve got to stretch this out because 22 episodes is a lot, and I want to save some good for down the line. So that\u2019s what got hard. What stories do we want to tell this season, and what stories do we want to tell the following season?<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s a good problem to have.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt is. I\u2019m very grateful for that problem.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe season six renewal news is now public, and that will put you at the 100-episode mark. How do you feel, and are you already thinking about how you might commemorate that moment?<\/p>\n

\n\tOh man, I\u2019m going to be so happy. We\u2019re going to do a cake. That\u2019s the only thing I can think of right now, is the cake. I don\u2019t know why I don\u2019t have any other thoughts, but the cake is really exciting to me. I\u2019m probably not even going to eat it. I just want to see the 100-episode cake.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tAbbott Elementary airs new episodes Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. on ABC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[This article contains spoilers from episode 19 of season five of Abbott Elementary] Last Wednesday\u2019s \u201cApril Fools\u201d episode…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[13279,1855,88,159368,87040,87041,27131,1012,87042],"class_list":{"0":"post-573223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-abbott-elementary","9":"tag-abc","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-janelle-james","12":"tag-luke-tennie","13":"tag-quinta-brunson","14":"tag-shrinking","15":"tag-the-pitt","16":"tag-tyler-james-williams"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}