TV Land Picks-Up Season 2 of Happily Divorced; ABC Family's State of Georgia Gets 2 Multiple Episode Airings In August

Thursday, July 21, 2011

TV Land Picks-Up Season 2 of Happily Divorced; ABC Family's State of Georgia Gets 2 Multiple Episode Airings In August

TV Land announced that it has picked up its original sitcom Happily Divorced, starring and co-written by Fran Drescher, for a second season with 12 new episodes tentatively scheduled to premiere in Spring 2012. Drescher shared the news with the Fran Fans on TV Land's Happily Divorced Facebook page. Happily Divorced, inspired by Drescher's own life, also stars acclaimed actors John Michael Higgins (Best in Show), Tichina Arnold (Everybody Hates Chris), Rita Moreno (OZ), Robert Walden (All The President's Men) and Valente Rodriguez (George Lopez). According to Nielsen, Happily Divorced is averaging over 2.2 million total viewers, a 1.0 among A25-54 and a 1.3 among W25-54 season-to-date, posting triple digit gains over the network's primetime average.
Drescher, twice nominated for both Golden Globe® and Emmy® Awards and also a New York Times best-selling author of Enter Whining and Cancer Schmancer, will co-write the show alongside her real life ex-husband, Peter Marc Jacobson. Jacobson previously worked with Drescher as co-creator and writer on The Nanny.
Filmed in front of a live studio audience, Happily Divorced airs on Wednesday nights at 10:30pm ET/PT immediately following new episodes of Hot in Cleveland.

ABC Family's freshman sitcom State of Georgia starring Raven Symone premiered on Wednesday, June 29 at 8:30pm and thus far has aired four episodes of its twelve-episode order (upped from the originally reported ten). Episode 5 will air next Wednesday (July 27) at 8:30pm, but then ABC Family will be airing FOUR all-new episodes (episodes 6-9) during a special 9-11pm block on this night. Melissa & Joey will air two all-new episodes for the full hour at 8pm on this date leading-in. The following week (Aug. 10) is back to normal for a week with an all-new Melissa & Joey at 8 and an all-new State of Georgia at 8:30 (episode 10), but then on Wednesday, August 17, State of Georgia for its season finale will air two all-new episodes (episodes 11 and 12) from 9-10pm following an hour of all-new Melissa & Joey at 8pm. Melissa & Joey will air for a full hour every week hereafter starting Aug. 17, and will be all-new for the full hour. They have 18 episodes to air this summer and that series has aired four so far this summer (thru July 20). If two all-new episodes air from Aug. 17 and on, the season finale would air on Sept. 14 (which is convenient because ABC returns its Wednesday comedy line-up on Sept. 21), but this is just my guess for now. Melissa & Joey was already renewed for a second season, as we reported.
It's hard to tell what ABC Family is doing with State of Georgia, but the ratings for episode three weren't very good last week (July 13, a 0.2 18-49 rating). Perhaps the multiple-episode stunts will help on Aug. 3 and Aug. 17? It's still early, so hopefully ABC Family is not giving up already because the first four episodes have been pretty funny and is a nice throwback to comedies of the early '90s. We'll certainly keep an eye on State of Georgia and hope they stick with it and renew it.

Sitcoms Airing Tonight

Wednesday, February 19

The Goldbergs - "Dave Kim's Party" (ABC, 8:00PM ET/PT)
A big party is being thrown at Dave Kim’s house and Pops has a plan to make Adam cool for the big event. Meanwhile, Beverly’s cookbook has made her “famous,” leading her to become out of control and fame-hungry, but eventually she learns an important lesson.

Schooled - "Moving On" (ABC, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Wilma steps in to help CB move on from Lainey with help from Coach Mellor, while Lainey learns she has unresolved issues from her past when mentoring a student.

Modern Family - "Spuds" (ABC, 9:00PM ET/PT)
Phil and Claire take Haley and Dylan to dinner to reassure them they are not bad parents. While out to dinner, they run into Mitch and Cam who are chaperoning Lily’s first date, as well as Jay and Gloria after attending Joe’s school play.

Single Parents - "Hip$ for Dolores" (ABC, 9:30PM ET/PT)
After rent on the Winebrary goes up, the gang all chip in in their own ways to help solve Poppy’s new financial problem, each learning a valuable lesson in the process.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of February 17)

Wednesday, February 19

Chris Pratt (Parks and Recreation) - Watch Chris on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC. He will also be on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, so check your local listings.
Lil Rel Howery (Rel/The Carmichael Show) - Lil Rel appears on a repeat of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
Laura Dern (F Is for Family/Enlightened) - Laura is a guest on a repeat of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
Tiffany Haddish (The Last O.G./The Carmichael Show) - Tiffany appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
James Marsden (30 Rock) - James stops by The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
Lizzy Caplan (Party Down/The Class) - Lizzy is a guest on a repeat of Conan at 11pm on TBS.
Jane Levy (Suburgatory) - Jane visits The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
Skylar Astin (Ground Floor) - Skylar appears on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
NeNe Leakes (The New Normal) - NeNe guest co-hosts The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
Adam Pally (Indebted/Making History/The Mindy Project/Happy Endings) - Adam drops by The Wendy Williams Show, so check your local listings.
Ken Jeong (Dr. Ken/Community) - Ken is a guest on The Kelly Clarkson Show, so check your local listings.
Jurnee Smollett-Bell (On Our Own) - Jurnee appears on The Kelly Clarkson Show, so check your local listings.
Da'Vine Joy Randolph (High Fidelity/People of Earth/Selfie) - Da'Vine talks about High Fidelity on NBC's Today in the 9am hour.
Suzanne Somers (Step by Step/She's the Sheriff/Three's Company) - Suzanne is a guest on Access Daily, so check your local listings.
Lauren Ash (Superstore/Super Fun Night) - Lauren appears on Access Daily, so check your local listings.
Kelly Ripa (Hope & Faith) - Kelly is a guest on People Now at 12pm.
Lark Voorhies (Saved by the Bell/In the House) - The actress who portrayed Lisa Turtle on the iconic teen sitcom Saved by the Bell opens up about her mental health challenges and her reaction to being left out of the reboot of the show on The Dr. Oz Show, so check your local listings.