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ABC Gives Full-Season Orders to Two Freshman Series

Oct 9, 2014  •  Post A Comment

It was good news for the cast and crew of a freshman sitcom and a freshman drama series on ABC.

According to an ABC network press release, “ABC has picked up the new hit comedy ‘black-ish’ and the new hit drama ‘How to Get Away With Murder,’ Paul Lee, President, ABC Entertainment Group announced today.”

The release continues, “ ‘How to Get Away With Murder’ was television’s top series debut of the season and the biggest 10 p.m. drama debut in two years in adults 18-49. ‘black-ish’ opened as the #2 series debut and the #1 comedy debut on television by the same metric. Additionally, ‘black-ish’ had the best-ever viewer retention out of ‘Modern Family’ for any comedy debut.”

According to a TVGuide report on this announcement, the pick-up will give us 22 episodes of “black-ish” this season, but only 15 episodes of “Murder,” because “Like other TV star-driven vehicles such as ‘The Following’ [with Kevin Bacon], ‘Murder’ can only produce 15 episodes a season per star Viola Davis’ contract.”

The TVGuide story also talks more about the ratings of the two shows: “Thanks to a record-breaking 6 million DVR replays,” the first episode of “Murder” drew more than 20 million viewers. TVGuide also notes that “in its second outing, the drama pulled 12.15 million and a 3.3 rating. Following ‘Modern Family,’ ‘black-ish’ premiered to 10.8 million and a 3.3 rating. On Wednesday [Oct. 8, 2014] the comedy’s third episode drew 8.2 million and a 2.8 rating.”

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