ABC has supersized the orders of some of its top ratings performers — Modern Family, The Goldbergs, Black-ish, The Middle, Grey’s Anatomy, Once Upon a Time, Castle, and Resurrection.
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. Not surprisingly, all four ABC Wednesday comedies are getting two extra episodes each. (For Black-ish, the extra two episodes come on top of the Back 9-episode pickup the new comedy received earlier this month.) In contrast, ABC’s Tuesday comedies, freshmen Selfie and Manhattan Love Story, are fighting for survival as the network has not decided on back episodic orders yet.
Also expanded to 24 is Season 11 of Thursday drama Grey’s Anatomy, which is adjusting well to its new 8 PM time slot. The medical soap has been a hard worker on the ABC schedule, regularly delivering 24 episodes a season, which is not an easy task for a primetime drama.
Three ABC dramas, veteran Castle, Sunday anchor Once Upon a Time, which has enjoyed a boost from its Frozen arc, and sophomore Resurrection, have received orders for one extra episode each. Castle and Once will produce 23 episode each, while Resurrection will deliver 14 as the supernatural drama shares a time slot with John Ridley’s 13-episode midseason series American Crime.
Absent from the list are dramas Scandal, How To Get Away With Murder, Nashville and Revenge, for different reasons. 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. That show will be succeed in midseason by drama Secrets & Lies.
For Nashville and Revenge, the lack of extra episodes reflects the soapy dramas’ ratings challenges this season.
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Yay! I Love The Goldbegs, great for Resurrection, maybe they want to tie some extra things up in case there not renewed :(
ReplyDeleteAwesome news!
ReplyDeleteHappy for Grey's and Castle.
ReplyDeleteAw now it doesn't feel so special for OUAT :P
ReplyDeleteawesome but what about Marvel's Agents of SHIELD damn it and forever
ReplyDeleteLUV ONCE! YAY!
ReplyDeleteI work on a Once Upon a Time Wiki, and I can tell you this additional hour is a nightmare. The worst thing that ever happened to the show, and the series was already hard enough to maintain a wiki for. We just don't know how to treat this extended episode. Is it one episode? Two? Ugh.
ReplyDeleteRight?
ReplyDeleteno love for AOS?
ReplyDeleteWas it really necessary to note out the ratings challenges of Revenge and Nashville? It sounds harsh; it's totally true, but it was not necessary to point it out
ReplyDeleteI recall a tweet or two by TV critics during TCA that indicated that Resurrection was doing 16 episodes this season, so I am surprised that the initial order was 13. I also am surprised by American Crime doing 13 episodes (heard it was 10 or 11) but Deadline could be incorrect on that.
ReplyDeleteIt's so weird they mentioned them cause AoS, Forever, Cristela and LMS are nowhere to be seen in the post. Deadline is so weird. They say stuff just cause they think so, not because the networks tell them, or because they have an inside source; they probably didn't have anything on AoS so they just didn't mention it.
ReplyDeleteIt's one episode that is split into two. 4x08 Part 1 and 4x08 Part 2. Hope that helps! :)
ReplyDeleteABC is so weird, no one does that. And Deadline is saying it will have 23, so I don't now what's happening. DL is probably wrong they always say the weirdest stuff
ReplyDeleteThey are probably incorrect.
ReplyDeleteUghhhh want more Nashville!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI bet if you asked every single actor or writer on one of these shows anonymously, over 90% would say that they would prefer to do 22 episodes instead of 23 or 24.
ReplyDeleteHorowitz seems to treat it as both one AND two episodes he said its "one 2-hour long epidode" but also said the episode count is 23 now and that episode 8 is now split into 8A & 8B :/
ReplyDeleteNot necessarily, it mean some other shows are special too.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't say that. It's possible ABC could have asked them and they turned it down. I mean the writing team might be at a point right now where they have the whole season mapped out and just don't want to throw in an extra episode.
ReplyDeleteJust one. Superzised like AHS that was and hour and a half.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a clever strategy, to stick to what works.
ReplyDeleteUntil they cash that check.
ReplyDeleteCall Greys Anatomy a soap one more time and u r dead.
ReplyDeleteI find odd that they happened to have filmed more than enough footage for an actual 2-parter (which I seem to comprehend from Adam's tweet) unless it was indeed intended to be that way from the start, so by all technicalities, it will be 4x08/09 respectively.
ReplyDeleteAgents, reach for your pitchforks!
ReplyDeleteIf that was the case, they should've said so along with Scandal...
ReplyDeleteIt's the same episode and it's a special that airs for two hours vs. one.
ReplyDelete... I work too on a OUAT Wiki and that's definitely not a problem. The extended episode is just longer. But it will probably be spiltted in two parts: Part 1 and Part 2. Same thing. They did the same thing for the season 2 finale of Desperate Housewives, years ago.
ReplyDeleteWell, it´s the truth:)
ReplyDeleteSo with HTGAWM it seem's like Viola only signed on for 15 episodes and declined to extend her contract. Happy that GA and Castle have extra's and that Scandal will be the full 22 this season.
ReplyDeleteBizarre that Scandal doesn't get at least two or more episodes considering it lost 4 last season because of KW's pregnancy. So strange that they can afford to do it with aging shows like GA & Castle, but not Scandal.
ReplyDeleteGA hasn't had more than 24 episodes in a while.
ReplyDeleteWeird that they didn't order an extra episode for Scandal.
If you noticed it is all veteran ABC Studio shows that are getting the nod for more episodes. Not the ones done outside or freshmen shows,
ReplyDeleteAmerican Crime is in fact 11 episodes.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean. I was the admin on HIMYM, and two-parters were a nightmare to deal with.
ReplyDeleteGoldbergs is WB.
ReplyDeleteThe Middle, The Goldbergs and Modern Family are not produced by ABC Studios. In fact, the only non ABC studios veteran to not be picked up for additional episodes was LMS.
ReplyDeleteI think they only got more than 24 episodes in Season 2 when they had the leftovers from Season 1 or am I mistaken?
ReplyDeletehappy for OUAT but damn another sign AOS is in danger. I gotta do something, I want season 3 so bad but what can I do? I can't think of anything else other than promoting the show and it doesn't work. T_T I'm hopeless bye my beloved AOS. You'll be remembered and cried over forever like The Tomorrow People & I think soon Perception as well. My favourites always have to go T_T
ReplyDeleteIt's not true for Resurrection.
ReplyDeleteYou misread my post. I did not say only ABC Studio veterans were given extra episodes. It was in the list almost all the shows were veteran shows produced by ABC Studios who is getting the nod. I was mistaken in stating All non In House productions were not given a nod.
ReplyDeleteWell they've explained why all shows (except for the Friday comedies) were or were not awarded extra episodes, so it makes sense to me in this case.
ReplyDeleteAOS and Forever were mentioned. They've explained each case. Only the Fridays comedies weren't mentioned, which I suspect is because the situation isn't clear yet, especially with Beyond the Tank going to series.
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling they're going to move The Middle to Friday night's next year.
ReplyDeleteIS it worth it? It only works if it's a quality episode. Frankly, I think 22 episodes were enough and more than enough work for the crew and cast to do. What's the point really? Yay ABC loves our shows but what will one more episode to for the season? I frankly don't see the point of it - it's just ABC patting themselves on the back for great shows that they really have nothing to do with except on a broadcast level. Someone explain this to me....
ReplyDeleteWhen they first posted, AoS and Forever weren't mentioned.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how they could order more MAOS. They have so much to fit into the 9pm Thursday schedule already with 22 MAOS + 8 Carter + DWTS fall finale + DWTS Spring finale + Election Preemption + State of Nation preemption + 2 weeks of filler during Christmas holidays = aka 36 weeks of programming already.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't need more MAOS (no room for it) and it would make no sense to make room for it when the show wouldn't even benefit from airing more episodes more likely (it is a serialized show). I wouldn't take it as a sign of love or lack of it ;) MAOS is fine!
Marvel's Agents of Shield is not in danger.
ReplyDeleteGoldbergs is from Sony.
ReplyDeletenot now but if it keeps being this low it'll be soon, no?
ReplyDeleteOh, right.
ReplyDeleteSeason 1 was only 7 episodes, no leftovers.
ReplyDeleteSeason 2 was originally 13 episodes until ABC ordered a back-9 episodes (22 episodes).
Season 3 was originally 22 episodes but then cut back to 18 due to Kerry's pregnancy.
Grey's hasn't had more than 24 episodes since season 3 (25 episodes). Other odd seasons were season 2 (27; the 5 extra leftover from season 1) season 4 (17;due to the strike) and season 7 (22; due to the musical episode being so time-consuming).
ReplyDeleteI think with Scandal it has to do with the time it takes to create the episodes. Scandal probably has more pre-production and post-production than Grey's.
It's not the budget, its the timing I think. It probably takes longer for a Scandal episode to be created than a Grey's episode.
ReplyDeletethe time they did 24 episodes they resorted to doing a clip show because of time constraints The extra episode was ordered in March or something so not much time was given to come up with/write/pre-produce/shoot/post-produce. I think they only had 3-4 days allotted to shoot instead of the usual 7-10, can't remember specifics but that was the reason Andrew Marlowe had given.
ReplyDeleteI thought season 11 of greys was originally 24 episodes when the ABC thingy announced they were doing the 'split seasons' again. How is this super-sized?
ReplyDeleteDidn't know Grey's wasn't going to originally do 24 episodes. They've had 24 episode seasons since season 8. Glad to know they're not going to short us this season.
ReplyDeletemy exact thoughts! I was like so how is this news they've done 24 episodes for many seasons now. I guess they probably shortened the season until they saw that the show adjusted well to the time change
ReplyDeleteGrey's has done 24 episodes since season 8 so really they are just giving the show the usual full season. Not sure why they took away episodes in the first place. I love Scandal too. Maybe they will order more episodes next season once the show is done adjusting to the loss of Harrison. It kind of feels like they're still trying to figure out where to go this season.
ReplyDeleteI think that it's Shonda Rhime's preference. She once mentioned that she actually preferred fewer episodes per season for shows like Scandal, because it allowed for a tighter script.
ReplyDeleteHaha.
ReplyDeleteI'm still very bitter about ABC canceling Happy Endings. It was their own scheduling gaffes that caused the ratings collapse.
ReplyDeleteConsider yourself lucky that SHIELD did not have it's episode order cut.
ReplyDeleteNot true.
ReplyDeleteAgree to disagree.
ReplyDelete