The ABC Television Network announced full season pick-up orders for new drama “FlashForward” and comedies “Cougar Town,” “The Middle” and “Modern Family.” Here are descriptions of each:
“Cougar Town” (Wednesdays from 9:30-10:00 p.m., ET)
Courteney Cox stars as Jules, a recently divorced single mother exploring the honest truths about dating and aging in our beauty and youth obsessed culture. While most women in their twenties go through life experiencing the challenges and often humorous pitfalls of meeting men, Jules took on the responsibilities of marriage and raising a son. Now in her forties, she embarks on a journey to self-discovery whilst surrounded by fellow divorcees and singletons eager to live or re-live a time gone by.
“Cougar Town” stars Courteney Cox as Jules, Christa Miller as Ellie, Busy Philipps as Laurie, Dan Byrd as Travis, Josh Hopkins as Grayson, Ian Gomez as Andy and Brian Van Holt as Bobby.
Bill Lawrence (“Scrubs,” “Spin City”) serves as executive producer/writer/director, Kevin Biegel (“Scrubs”) as writer/co-executive producer, and Courteney Cox and David Arquette are executive producers. The pilot for “Cougar Town was directed by Bill Lawrence and the series is produced by ABC Studios.
Exhibiting impressive compatibility, ABC’s “Cougar Town” holds 100% retention of its “Modern Family” lead-in in Adults 18-49. “Cougar Town” ranks a strong No. 2 in its half-hour in Adults 18-49, just two-tenths of a ratings point behind and tied in audience share with first-place CBS’s veteran drama, “Criminal Minds.” The new show leads its time period among Men 18-34. The freshman comedy is also improving the time period for ABC year to year, boosting the Net’s results over the comparable year-ago nights in Total Viewers (+19%) and Adults 18-49 (+23%).
“FlashForward” (Thursdays from 8:00-9:00 p.m., ET)
What would you do if you were given a glimpse of the future? Would you accept what you saw and live life to its fullest, or would you do everything in your power to change your destiny? When the world’s population is given a glimpse of their future, it forces everyone to come to grips with whether their destinies can be fulfilled or avoided, in ABC’s drama, “FlashForward.”
Knowing their fate will alter each person’s life in one way or another, and poses the questions: Can destiny be changed? And by changing just one destiny, what effect would that have on those of others?
“FlashForward” stars Joseph Fiennes as Mark Benford, John Cho as Demetri Noh, Jack Davenport as Lloyd Simcoe, Zachary Knighton as Bryce Varley, Peyton List as Nicole Kirby, Dominic Monaghan as Simon, Bran F. O’Byrne as Aaron Stark, Courtney B. Vance as Stanford Wedeck, Sonya Walger as Olivia Benford and Christine Woods as Janis Hawk.
The series executive producers are David S. Goyer (co-writer of “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight”), Brannon Braga (“24,” “Star Trek”), Marc Guggenheim (“Brothers & Sisters,” “Eli Stone”) and Jessika Borsiczky (“Revelations”). The pilot for “FlashForward” was directed by David Goyer. The series, which premiered on September 24, 2009, is from ABC Studios.
From 8:00-9:00 p.m. on Thursday, ABC’s “FlashForward” ranks No. 1 in Adults 18-49, leading CBS’ time-period veteran “Survivor: Samoa.” On its series debut telecast, the new ABC drama became the first regular program since “Friends” in 2004 to beat “Survivor” in the key young adult sales demo. The ABC freshman is an exceptionally strong draw among Adults 18-34, dominating its time period and qualifying as TV’s No. 1 new drama series this season. The new series is greatly improving its time period year to year for ABC, boosting the hour by 1.8 million viewers and by 32% in Adults 18-49 over the same nights last year. Based on DVR playback during season-premiere week, “FlashForward” finished as TV’s biggest freshman gainer, as its numbers jumped by 2.0 million viewers (12.5 million to 14.5 million) and 8-tenths of an Adult 18-49 rating point (4.1 rating to 4.9 rating) from the initially reported next-day numbers to DVR finals.
“The Middle” (Wednesdays from 8:30-9:00 p.m., ET)
Emmy-winner Patricia Heaton stars in this warm and witty single-camera comedy about raising a family and lowering your expectations.
Frankie Heck is a superhero. Well, no, not an actual superhero not unless you count getting her kids out the door for school every morning as a superfeat. Middle-aged, middle class and living in the middle of the country, this harried wife and working mother of three uses her wry wit and sense of humor to try to get her family through each day intact. Frankie has a job selling cars at the town’s only surviving car dealer; her husband, Mike, is a manager at the local quarry.
“The Middle” stars Patricia Heaton as Frankie, Neil Flynn as Mike, Charlie McDermott as Axl, Eden Sher as Sue, Atticus Shaffer as Brick and Chris Kattan as Bob.
“The Middle” is created and executive-produced by Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heline, and is a production of Warner Bros. Television.
Building on its lead-in at 8:30 p.m. among viewers (+4%) and young adults (+26%), ABC’s “The Middle” qualifies as the most-watched TV show in its time period and a ranks a strong No. 2 in the half-hour to Fox’s time-period regular “So You Think You Can Dance” among Adults 18-49. The new ABC comedy also holds the No. 1 position in its half-hour with Adults 25-54 and Men 18-49. On average, “The Middle” is boosting ABC’s numbers in half-hour year-to-year by 2.1 million viewers and by 20% in Adults 18-49, over the same nights last season.
“Modern Family” (Wednesdays from 9:00-9:30 p.m., ET)
Today’s American families come in all shapes and sizes. The cookie cutter mold of man + wife + 2.5 kids is a thing of the past, as it becomes quickly apparent in the bird’s eye view of ABC’s new half-hour comedy, “Modern Family,” which takes an honest and often hilarious look at the composition and complexity of family life in 2009.
“Modern Family” stars Ed O’Neill as Jay, Julie Bowen as Claire, Ty Burrell as Phil, Sofa Vergara as Gloria, Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Mitchell, Eric Stonestreet as Cameron, Sarah Hyland as Haley, Nolan Gould as Luke, Ariel Winter as Alex and Rico Rodriguez as Manny.
The series is produced by Twentieth Century Fox Television in association with Levitan Lloyd Productions. Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd are executive producers/creators. The pilot was directed by Jason Winer, who also serves as co-executive producer on the series.
Standing as TV’s most-watched new comedy this season, ABC’s “Modern Family” ranks No. 1 in its half-hour among Adults 18-49. “Modern Family” is also No. 1 in its slot among Women 18-49 and Men 18-34. On average, the freshman comedy is improving the time period year to year for ABC, growing its half-hour over the same nights last year by 3.0 million viewers and by 36% in Adults 18-49.
