ABC has been A Busy Company. The network on Friday renewed four more series, including Scrubs and the freshman series Castle and Better Off Ted, sources tell TVGuide.com. Also due back for the 2009-10 season is the Ashton Kutcher-produced reality show True Beauty.
ABC, however, is not officially confirming any new pick-ups until its May 19 upfront presentation.
For Scrubs' somewhat surprising (and latest) resurrection, Zach Braff will return for at least a handful of episodes. Although one trade mag reported that Sarah Chalke was signed ...
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Can ABC's Better Off Ted produce laughs as well as far-out inventions? Is Parks and Recreation worthy of Amy Poehler's talents? Does Harper's Island slay us? Now that TV's new spring shows have had a few weeks to strut their stuff, TVGuide.com's senior editors gauge their areas of excellence — and how they can improve.
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Wednesday's ratings recap:
8 pm/ET
Fox's Lie to Me led the pack with an audience of 10.03 million total viewers, down 10 percent from its week-ago time-period premiere. CBS' sitcoms combined for second, though both Old Christine (7.37 mil, down 260K) and Gary (7.57 mil, down 140K) dipped a bit.
Placing third was ABC's Scrubs (5.8 mil) and lead-out Better Off Ted (which premiered to 5.64 mil). Top Model (3.6 mil) tumbled 19 percent yet still bested NBC's rotting Chopping Block (3.46 mil).
9 pm
American Idol's results show delivered 23 million viewers, slipping 7 percent week-to-week. Criminal Minds followed with 13.5 mil, down a half mil. Lost's numbers weren't terribly groovy, dropping 14 percent to an all-time low of 9.08 mil. (Next week, Sawyer & Co. face an even tougher hurdle: Idol's Obama-cized, two-hour performance show!) Life also took a plunge, to 4.22 mil.
10 pm
CSI: NY won the hour with 12.7 million viewers (down 800K), followed by Law & Order (7.07 mil, down 530K). Life on Mars showed some life, surging 15 percent to 5.27 mil.
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Veridian Dynamics, the ethically impaired conglomerate at the heart of ABC's Better Off Ted (premiering Wednesday at 8:30 pm/ET), can weaponize a pumpkin, develop a desk chair that improves job performance and freeze-dry a staffer just for sport. But can the new comedy produce big laughs? Jay Harrington, fresh off playing doctor with Private Practice's Addison, gave TVGuide.com a look at the workplace wackiness to come.
TVGuide.com: I was saying to Tim Daly recently that extended guest arcs, like the ones you and Jayne Brooks both had on Private Practice, almost seem like a "proving ground" for actors. Like ABC is wondering, "Hmm, let's see if we want this actor to front our new series...."
Jay Harrington: Yeah, there's some comparison to a Triple-A farm system, if you will. [Laughs] In addition to that and Desperate Housewives [Harrington played Susan's beau, Dr. Ron], I had done a pilot for ABC two years ago that didn't go anywhere. It was good; it just wasn't good enough.
TVGuide.com: I enjoyed the Better Off Ted pilot. It has a dry, Scrubs-like humor.
Harrington: It does, thank you. I'm a fan of myself. [Laughs] And since the pilot, we've ...
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Better Off Ted
8:30 pm/ET ABC
Jay Harrington (Private Practice; Desperate Housewives) stars in this office sitcom about a single dad who works as the head of Research and Development for a scientific company that's in need of a good moral compass. In the series premiere, Ted's boss (Portia de Rossi) tasks Ted to recruit a research scientist as the guinea pig in a cryogenic experiment. That's just cold.
Read on for previews of Lost, American Idol, Global Warming: The New Challenge with Tom Brokaw and CSI: NY.
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