'Abbott Elementary' star Sheryl Lee Ralph is 'rooting for' Janine and Gregory to get together on the show

• "Abbott Elementary" has teased a potential romance between coworkers Janine and Gregory.
• Emmy winner Sheryl Lee Ralph tells Insider she's "absolutely rooting" for the pairing.

It's not just "Abbott Elementary" fans who want to see Gregory and Janine get together on the ABC sitcom.

Star Sheryl Lee Ralph is cheering on the sidelines for the teachers to express their feelings for each other.

"Sheryl Lee is absolutely rooting for Janine and Gregory," Ralph, who won an Emmy for her performance on the series as kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard, told Insider recently while promoting a partnership with Microban 24.

On the show, which follows a documentary crew capturing the lives of teachers at an underfunded Philadelphia school, Gregory (Tyler James Williams) and Janine (Quinta Brunson) clearly have eyes for each other despite awkwardly tiptoeing around the subject.

On a recent December episode, it seemed like the two may finally open up to each other when they danced together in a club.

Instead, Janine began dating Gregory's friend, Maurice (Vince Staples).

When Janine suspects Gregory may be into her on the show's February 8 episode, her fellow teachers, including Barbara, tell her it's obvious Gregory has a thing for her despite dating another woman.

"I am just so fascinated how very much they need to work on their social skills," Ralph said of the lack of communication between Gregory and Janine. "Oh my God, these two young people need to get it together. I get so frustrated with them sometimes."

"But I just love it, just like the audience is," Ralph added. "I hope our writers' room continues to do what they're doing and just make us want it for as long as they possibly can."

When we compared a potential Janine and Gregory romance to that of Jim and Pam on "The Office," Ralph agreed.

It took until season four for Jim and Pam to start dating on the NBC sitcom. "Abbott Elementary" is currently on its second season.

Ralph said if and when the two finally get together on the series, it will be a surprise to her.

"I don't read the script before the table read," Ralph said. "I want it to be fresh for me. I want to be surprised by what I see in the scripts."

Though Ralph loves the idea of a Janine and Gregory pairing, she said her character, Barbara, feels differently.

"She comes from that school of, 'I don't think it's proper for people to mix pleasure with their passion,' which right now is education," Ralph said of Barbara's take on Janine and Gregory. "I think that they should probably keep that to themselves."

Ralph added, "But we also know that it's a new day, a new age, and young people are gonna do what young people are gonna do. So she's just sitting back and waiting to see, 'What are they going to do?'"

As we all are.

New episodes of "Abbott Elementary" air on ABC on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.