ABC has placed its first back-nine orders, and the lucky winners are Cougar Town, Modern Family, and The Middle. Various outlets are reporting that the alphabet network is apparently betting on its trio of freshman comedies with the remaining comedy effort, Kelsey Grammar's Hank, not expected to make it.
Both Cougar Town and Modern Family have been big demographic wins for the network, even though both are posting lower numbers this week than last week. The decline must have been within the tolerable range. The Middle, on the other hand, seems to be the one show out the trio getting the patron of the arts support – numbers for The Middle have been less than sterling. In fact, The Middle is few ticks away from Hank on TVByTheNumbers renew/cancel index.
ABC is not expected to make any announcements regarding their drama lineup, but the numbers speak for themselves. The Forgotten and Eastwick are most definitely gone, while Castle seems to be dancing a jig between safe and dead. Castle improved this week, but the more cynical ratings analysts are pointing towards a Dancing With the Stars over-run as the explanation. Still, Castle's second season order was a surprise to most and ABC's benchmark for keeping the drama around is an unknown.
Since FlashForward started life with a full season order, it is looking unlikely that ABC will announce any back-nine orders for its freshman drama line-up.
