After rescuing Conan O'Brien from his messy NBC contract, TBS has stepped in to save another beloved network comedy. The network announced today that they are picking up Cougar Town the ABC sitcom that struggled along with a silly name but devoted fanbase for three seasons, with Courteney Cox in the lead role and Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence behind the scenes. The show had been on the bubble at ABC, particularly given series-low ratings of 4.8 million viewers when it returned form hiatus in February.
The TBS pickup has been rumored a few days ago, and it's not the first time Lawrence has pulled off this trick-- Scrubs switched from NBC to ABC for its seventh season. TBS will be begin airing new episodes of Cougar Town in 2013, and they also acquired its 61 existing episodes from the first three seasons, meaning you may see the show in their usual rerun lineup of old Friends episodes. Here's what TBS head of programming Michael Wright had to say about the pickup:
"Cougar Town is a smart, whimsical sitcom that draws its humor from likable, relatable characters. We are thrilled to have Cougar Town moving to the TBS neighborhood as the network continues to expand its slate of original comedy series."
With Neflix reviving Arrested Development and now this, it's a really exciting time for fans of offbeat comedies that don't necessarily fit into the network mold. And even though Community is likely to be revived by NBC for another season, who knows-- maybe this kind of switch will be in store for them, or NBC's low-rated Best Friends Forever, or anything else in the future. Thanks, TBS, for stepping in on behalf of a great comedy that was clearly in need of a better home.
