Surprisingly, ABC’s Castle hasn’t been on completely solid ground throughout Season 5. New episodes of the series have not been doing quite as well in the ratings on Mondays, although the numbers have still been pretty good. Today, however, the Disney-owned network has shown a leap of faith in its procedural series, which stars Firefly alum Nathan Fillion. The network has ordered an additional episode for Castle’s fifth season run.
The added episode will bring the total episode count to 24 for the season. According to EW, the news is not only good for fans, it also shows a sign of faith from the network. With a little luck, the next Castle news we hear will hopefully be a renewal for Season 6.
Part of the big appeal with Castle has been seeing the man and his police partner Beckett engage in an overly flirty relationship. That could only go on for so long before the flirtation turned into a relationship or turned sour. While I’m happy the show is progressing, now that the two are actually dating in the series, I’ve heard complaints from friends who are tuning in less. Likely, the ratings are reflecting the change in the romantic tension, but maybe there are other reasons less people are tuning in, as well. However, I should note the series is still averaging well over 9 million viewers, which is hardly a disaster.
The extra episode is expected to be added to the lineup in April, during a week that was formerly devoted to reruns.
