Defying the critical consensus as pointedly as the general TV audience does, ABC handed out its first full-season pickup yesterday—not to the championed yet relatively underperforming Last Resort or Nashville, but to The Neighbors. The sitcom that examines the everyday foibles of aliens hiding in suburbia and how, no matter what planet you're from, life is goofy, hackneyed, and mawkish has done pretty well despite scathing reviews and dismissive sentences such as this one, pulling solid enough numbers to justify keeping it around for the rest of the year. It's joined by a nine-episode back order for Shonda Rhimes' Scandal, with the Kerry Washington-produced political drama growing viewers in its second season—and with the recently announced end of Private Practice, ABC was spurred to commit to keeping another Rhimes show, as it must have at least two at all times. The network also recently ordered additional scripts for Last Resort and 666 Park Avenue to get a sense of where those shows might be headed (but we probably wouldn't get too attached to either).
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