Cougar Town Gets Early Pick Up, Southland Gets Surprise Cancellation

Posted on October 8, 2009

ABC has given an early pickup to Courtney Cox's Cougar Town, Modern Family and The Middle. The series all got picked up for nine more episodes.

Courteney Cox's "Cougar Town," which like "Modern Family" has aired three times, came out strong too. More than 11.2 million viewers tuned in to the Sept. 23 premiere, which earned a 4.4 rating/11 share in 18-49. Through three airings, ABC Studios' "Cougar" is averaging a 3.8/10 in the demo and solid 9.5 million viewers overall.
ABC is showing faith in Warner Bros.' "The Middle." Sitcom, which garnered mostly favorable reviews, is averaging a 2.4/7 in 18-49 and 7.8 million viewers overall in the 8:30 p.m. slot, building in its two airings by half a ratings point over "Hank," the new Kelsey Grammer starrer.

In other tv news, Ben McKenzie's supposedly renewed cop show Southland just got axed by NBC. The cast and crew has already filmed six episodes of the second season, so the news is coming a quite a shock.

Rumors say that NBC execs were shocked at how dark the six episodes are, but we're not buying it. Southland executive producer John Wells issued a statement saying: "I am disappointed that NBC no longer has the time periods available to support the kind of critically acclaimed series that was for so many years the hallmark of their success." He said he is going to shop the show to another network. It's a good show and hopefully another network will pick it up.