How to Get Away with Murder is calling in Scandal, but is it worth it?

This could either turn out really well or really not well, depending on what exactly is going on with the stars of Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder.

Far be it from us to speculate that TGIT may be facing a little danger. TV By the Numbers has done that already — although the outlet still predicts How to Get Away with Murder will make it to five seasons. But when the teases start building up, as noted by both Entertainment Weekly and The Hollywood Reporter (which also points out that ratings are less than stellar for Viola Davis’ show), then it’s time to face the reality that there might be a shared universe between at least Olivia Pope and Annalise Keating.

And, in fact, we might be seeing it sooner rather than later.

Here’s Davis in Mellie Grant’s Oval Office on Scandal:

And meanwhile, Olivia Pope … er, Kerry Washington … went to court.

Those boots are a lot, Ms. Pope. Not to knock you too hard, but they are. Still, those light fixtures look awfully recognizable even before you get to Washington’s caption, which asks “This spot look familiar?!”

UPDATE: Shonda Rhimes has officially confirmed that it’s happening, with a look at the meetup.

But what would a How to Get Away with a Scandal crossover look like? Annalise’s world is populated generally by the problems she faces for crimes that have only piled up thanks to her and her students (and also possibly organized crime with Laurel’s dad. It’s complicated). Even her giant lawsuit project is aimed at one state.

Meanwhile, while Olivia still has a lot of interpersonal problems, at the end of the day, she’s a political fixer turned Chief of Staff, which means that her portfolio is a little bigger. It’s a question of scale. Does the corruption Annalise is fighting go all the way to the White House?

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The threads seem pretty tenuous, and at the end of the day, it seems as though the goal might be to at least pull Murder up a bit by tying it more tightly to Scandal than just letting it follow in the airing schedule.

But short-term gains seem like a weak thing to be chasing for Murder and ABC as a whole.