• by Paul Gough , February 27, 2003

Pleased by the success of its family-comedy strategy’s place in reviving its flagging fortunes, ABC announced it has renewed six comedies and four other programs for the 2003-04 season.

Before this season began in September, ABC placed a lot of hope in its 8 p.m. – 10 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday comedies, including 8 Simple Rules, According to Jim, Less Than Perfect, My Wife and Kids, The George Lopez Show and Life with Bonnie. ABC is also renewing Alias, America’s Funniest Home Videos, NYPD Blue and The Bachelor for its fourth run.

While the news wasn’t all good – it placed fourth in the sweep, despite the strength of the comedies, Michael Jackson specials and The Bachelorette – ABC Entertainment Chairman Lloyd Braun said the network was performing much better than it could have expected before the season began. ABC was up 8% season-to-date in adults 18-49 (4.1/11 vs. 3.8/10), up 13% in adults 18-34 (3.5/3 vs. 3.1/9), and up 29% in teens 12-17 (2.7/9 vs. 2.1/8).

Of the comedy block that brought sitcom veterans John Ritter and Katy Segal and comic actress Bonnie Hunt to ABC, ABC Entertainment Chairman Lloyd Braun said the network’s promise to show patience and support the shows had borne fruit.

“We’re thrilled to be able to continue to watch them grow,” said Braun.

He said the shows will take advantage of the three-month headstart – compared to the green lights that networks generally give returning shows by the time they announce their fall schedules in May – to start working out new storylines, hiring writers and tweaking casting.

Braun said the 10 shows ABC has picked up so far this year “form the foundation of this continuing rebuilding process.” Acknowledging the “crazy environment” in launching scripted programming, he nevertheless said that it would be important going forward and would form the basis for future success. Braun and ABC Entertainment President Susan Lyne promised aggressive development

At least two new comedies would premiere in the fall, with other new comedies possible as the season wears on.

A longtime mainstay of the ABC schedule, The Drew Carey Show, is going on hiatus. The show, along with Carey’s Whose Line Is It, Anyway? had been languishing in its 9 p.m. Friday time slot and had resisted other moves designed to boost ratings.

The Drew Carey Show will be relaunched in its original time period – 9 p.m. Wednesday – in the summer and run 10 original episodes beginning with its 200th anniversary show.

“The writers have been writing specifically for the summer so these episodes will reflect that,” Lyne said.

Lyne said the quality of the shows have been very strong this season and the network had tried it at 9 and 9:30 p.m. Fridays. She believed that it’s double run in syndication and cable between 7 and 8 p.m. mean that a lot of people are watching then and not on the network.

“We’re hoping that moving it to Wednesday at 9 and original episodes in the summer, that it will give the show the boost that it deserves,” Lyne said.