ABC has bumped up the orders for some of its prime-time series, in a move that in part reflects a strong start to the fall season for one night in particular — Wednesday night.
Deadline.com reports that the order for extra episodes includes strong ratings performers “Modern Family” and “Castle.”
“For the first time in years, ABC has a Wednesday comedy block that is clicking, with tentpoles ‘Modern Family’ and ‘The Middle’ getting support from transplant ‘The Goldbergs,’ which is regularly building on its ‘Middle’ lead-in, and newbie ‘black-ish,’ which has showed solid retention behind ‘Modern Family,’” the story reports.
All of those four Wednesday comedies are receiving two additional episodes, with “black-ish” receiving the order for two new episodes after getting a back-nine pickup earlier this month, the story notes.
At the same time, ABC’s Tuesday comedies, “Selfie” and “Manhattan Love Story,” are “fighting for survival,” the story says. The new drama “Forever” is waiting on whether it may receive a full-season pickup.
Other shows receiving expanded orders are “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Castle” and “Once Upon a Time,” with the latter show receiving a ratings boost from the introduction of a “Frozen” storyline.
Several dramas did not receive additional episode orders, including “Scandal,” “How to Get Away With Murder” and “Nashville,” the story points out.
“ABC would’ve loved to get more ‘Scandal’ and ‘HTGAWM’ originals, but both are dense, serialized dramas. So ‘Scandal’ will stick to 22, while ‘HTGAWM’ is producing 15, per star Viola Davis’ contract,” the piece adds.
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