CBS orders more 'Unmarried' and 'Week'

CBS has given Wednesday night comedy "Gary Unmarried" a full season pickup, a network spokesman says. 

The network has ordered seven more episodes of "Unmarried" plus two scripts from ABC Studios and CBS Paramount, which CBS is considering a "full season" in this case.

The network has also ordered another three episodes of "Worst Week" from Universal Media Studios and CBS Paramount.

"Unmarried" has averaged 7.4 million viewers and a 2.5 adult demo rating; "Week" has averaged 9.9 million viewers and a 3.3.

Though "Week" is higher rated, it has the luxury of a powerful "Two and a Half Men" lead-in on Monday nights.Whereas "Unmarried" has a much more modest push from "The New Adventures of Old Christine."

"Unmarried" also showed promise during its one experiment on Mondays, when a repeat of its pilot maintained a larger percentage of the "Half Men" audience. Returning series"Rules of Engagement" is also a factor for midseason and could drop into either slot should "Week" get pulled. With the new orders, however, CBS will likely avoiding making any major comedy shakeups until after the holidays.

Updated: Fall TV series survival report

Comments

[K6]

I don't watch CBS anymore since they canceled Jericho. I will not get involved with CBS again. In our house CBS means Can't Be Seen.

[ej]

Gary is the stupidest show this year.
Each episode starts with him in bed with a new "whore" (his words, I believe), while trying to explain to them about his previous marriage.
This is humor? Do writer's even try anymore?

[matt]

That's not how Garry starts at all--he's in the bed with the same woman each week (he's starting out in a relationship with another recently divorced woman and its moving faster then he's comfortable with--and he's never described her as a whore--i dunno where you got that one from)

i like Garry..its a wry and unassuming show that's surprisingly likable (which is something i'd never thought could be said about anything that stars Jay Mohr or Paula Marshall and here the two of them are together no less! and they are likable) its never hilarious, but it has proven to be chuckle worthy in spots...and is a great fit with Adventures of Old Christine. I'm glad the audience that Christine has attracts has latched onto this as well. (although of course that could also be the Criminal Minda audience tuning in early to see their show..but either way the show's doin' ok which is again surprising given cbs's many attempts to program sitcoms on wed nights over the last five or six years..failures each and every time safe the time they had The King of Queens and Becker on that night.) Basically Garry is a nice to moderate sitcom which is the kind we need more of lets be honest---since reality took over--the networks have all but abandoned the moderate level sitcoms which there used to be plenty of on tv, and frankly i'd rather have more moderetely solid sitcoms that i can enjoy rather then crap that i'm desperete to avoid.

On that level i keep trying to enjoy Worst Week but honestly tho its really really lousy. I keep watching as i enjoyed the pilot, and moments here and there keep me hoping it'll get better...but its pretty bad in general. the main problem is the situations feels forced, its characters are too one note, (they're also constantly lying to each other which is of course what fuels the mishaps, it worked for George Costanza, but you just wanna yell at the main guy--if you just tell Red Foreman the truth, no matter how scary he appears to be, you can avoid crap later on!)
you just know that if they give any character a simple task it'll go in the worst possible way imaginable....its just all so predictable week in and week out.

I predict its numbers will be soundly beaten by Rules of Engagement's numbers when Rules returns to the sked in Jan/Feb...and Worst will then be forgotten. (kinda the way The Class was---but at least The Class had a story to tell and actual characters who felt emotions and were given things to do beyond the one generic thing assigned to them each ep) i'll be very surprised if Worst lands on cbs's fall lineup when they announce their sked in May. For now tho i'm watching, but yeah when a show is making me wish for the return of Daivd Spade that can't be a good thing.

[Tim]

I have to agree with matt. I have no idea what ej was referring to ... maybe he or she is thinking of a different show altogether? At any rate - of the new shows I've sampled this season, Gary Unmarried is the only one I actually look forward to. Maybe because I can relate to much of it - but I find it enjoyable. Worst Week on the other hand ... I watched the first episode and vowed never to watch again - a complete waste of 30 minutes. I was shocked and disappointed to see how poorly Gary was doing in the ratings - and conversely how well Worst Week was doing, comparitavely speaking. I hope more people turn on to Gary Unmarried because I'd love to see it stick around for a little while.