Following months of uncertainty over the future of ‘Cougar Town’, which stars Golden Globe nominee Courteney Cox, it was revealed on Thursday May 10 that a deal has been made which will see the critically-beloved, but low-rated, series move to TBS for a fourth season, set to air in early 2013.

There had been rumors of such a deal in the last week, with initial reports suggesting that TBS would pick-up ‘Cougar Town’ for 30 episodes spread across two seasons. However, as it stands TBS has only renewed it for Season 4, with the actors under contract for Season 5 should it perform well enough for TBS to order an additional season.

This move comes after a difficult life for the series on ABC. Premiering to strong ratings in the fall of 2009, ‘Cougar Town’ was scheduled alongside ABC’s number one comedy ‘Modern Family’ and performed well-enough to stay in that slot for two seasons. However, its ratings weren’t quite on par with ‘Modern Family’, and ABC pulled it from the schedule while it tried out a variety of other comedies, hoping to find a more compatible fit for ‘Modern Family’.

But no such series was found while ‘Cougar Town’ remained off the air, until February of this year. When the series finally did return to ABC, it was scheduled alongside freshman comedy ‘Last Man Standing’, a much lower-rated series than ‘Modern Family’ and one which skews a significantly different audience demographic. The combination of a protracted hiatus and an incompatible lead-in resulted in poor ratings for ‘Cougar Town’, as well as an unlikely chance at renewal on ABC for next season.

However, with 61 episodes under its belt and with it being owned by ABC Studios, the series is too close to syndication for ABC to cancel it altogether. With the new TBS deal, ABC will still benefit financially if the series produces enough episodes for syndication, which it presumably will in light of TBS and ABC coming to this agreement in the first place.

‘Cougar Town’ is not the first series in recent history to switch networks, nor is it the first for co-creator Bill Lawrence (his last series, ‘Scrubs’, aired on NBC for seven seasons before moving over to ABC in 2008).

Yet, ‘Cougar Town’s move does mark a blow to the long working relationship between Lawrence and ABC. Although ‘Scrubs’ aired on NBC for the majority of its run, it too was owned by ABC Studios, while prior to that Lawrence had co-created the sitcom ‘Spin City” which had a six season run on ABC from 1996 to 2002.

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‘The Good Wife’ broke the CBS mould when it debuted in September 2009. Airing on a network which thrives on formulaic, franchise-friendly procedurals such as ‘CSI’, ‘Criminal Minds’, and ‘NCIS’, ‘The Good Wife’ represented a more hybridised type of drama than CBS was used to, with the series’ weekly, self-contained legal cases operating as a counter-balance to ongoing, character-driven storylines.

However, despite its departure from the CBS norm, ‘The Good Wife’ has developed into network television’s most critically lauded show while attracting a consistently high calibre of well-respected guest stars, ranging from Michael. J Fox and Mamie Gummer to recent additions Lisa Edelstein and Matthew Perry. The series has received multiple award nominations, including a Peabody Award for Excellence in 2010, and Emmy, Golden Globe, and consecutive Screen Actors Guild wins for its star Julianna Margulies.

Now in its third season, ‘The Good Wife’, which is set in Chicago but shot in New York, has delved deeper into the personal lives of several of its characters while still interweaving numerous social and political contexts in a manner not seen in any other network or cable drama.

Initially centred around Alicia Florrick, the humiliated wife of Illinois’ disgraced State’s Attorney, ‘The Good Wife’ has since evolved into an ensemble offering, exploring such issues as: political campaigning, inter-office power struggles, judicial bribery, economic woes, and technology’s growing impact in every facet of the professional and domestic spheres.

This season began with Alicia (Margulies) having separated from her husband Peter (Chris Noth) following his re-election as State’s Attorney and the discovery that he had had a sexual encounter with Kalinda Sharma (Emmy Award winner Archie Panjabi), the in-house investigator at Alicia’s law firm and Alicia’s closest friend.

In turn, Alicia embarked on a relationship with Will Gardner (Josh Charles), a senior partner at the firm, and was forced to work directly with her husband’s political campaigner Eli Gold (Alan Cumming) after she had used him as a political contact to beat out fellow attorney Cary Agos (Matt Czuchry) for a job.

Agos later defected to the State’s Attorney’s Office, where he now works alongside Alicia’s husband and has been promoted to the position of Deputy State’s Attorney. Observing all of this is Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski), the firm’s other senior partner and a staunch Democrat, whose Liberal convictions often clash with the needs and requirements of surviving in the legal field.

Reflecting on all of this, it is quite clear that ‘The Good Wife’ has moved far away from its original premise of a scorned ex-wife returning to the workplace. Now, it juggles multiple story arcs and long-simmering narrative tensions which could very well be overwhelming to the casual viewer accustomed to the plethora of modern day procedurals.

The series’ producers – led by husband/wife duo Robert and Michelle King, and supported by feature film heavyweights Ridley and Tony Scott – have stayed so committed to making ‘The Good Wife’ a multi-layered saga that it is now typically the only network drama to receive recognition at the major television award ceremonies.

Ironically, it is also one of CBS’ lowest-rated series and has yet to secure a syndication deal, despite it approaching its fourth year of production.

This divide between its critical reception and commercial performance is perhaps indicative of television’s growing trend towards targeting niche audiences in an effort to combat all-encompasing audience declines, with a series such as ‘NCIS’ regularly attracting 20 million viewers and zero critical acclaim, while a series such as ‘Mad Men’ rarely attracts 3 million viewers yet has won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series four years in a row. Thus, with a season-to-date average of 10.35 million viewers, ‘The Good Wife’ finds itself in something of a middle-ground position.

On-screen, however, the series is not concerning itself with the business side of television productions. Just eight episodes remain this season, and in that run of episodes audiences are expected to see: Alicia’s decision about whether to persevere with a divorce from her husband, and the personal and professional fallout which that would in turn trigger; Eli’s plans to have Peter run for governorship; and most interestingly the inter-office power struggles which are now certain to arise following Will’s six-month disbarment for stealing money from a client’s account.

In recent episodes, the writers have explored the current civil unrest in Syria, potential prejudices in military law, institutional manipulation in the United States Treasury Department, and prosecutorial complications arising from Chinese diplomatic immunity. As a result of engaging in such socially-volatile debates, it seems appropriate for ‘The Good Wife’ to step back and explore more insular conflicts of greater personal importance to the characters.

Yet, with its fearlessness over broaching so many hot-button issues on a mainstream network landscape, ‘The Good Wife’ seems certain to join the likes of ‘The Wire’ and ‘The West Wing’ as one of America’s most culturally resonant television dramas of the twenty-first century.

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Glee has been a television and cultural phenomenon since its debut in 2009. Centring around a high school glee club in the fictional town of Lima, Ohio, the series has made household names of its stars Lea Michele, Jane Lynch and Matthew Morrison. The cast’s musical recordings have broken chart and touring records, while the producers have launched a successful companion reality series entitled “The Glee Project”, which seeks to find new singers for the mother series.

However, now in its third season, Glee is facing a number of challenges both on and offscreen, the latest of which is the announcement that this summer will not see the cast embark on a US and UK tour, one which proved to be one of the most successful tours of 2011. While FOX insists that the absence of a tour this year is simply a way of giving give the cast a break after three years of continuous work, the decision comes as the latest in a line of challenges which the show has had to face in recent times.

Firstly, the show has experienced a steady ratings decline during this season. In its last airing on February 14, Glee garnered 6.99 million viewers, down 24% from its season premiere on September 20. More worrying, on a year-to-year scale this marked a 34% decline from the 10.53 million it attracted on February 15, 2010.

This comes in spite of high-profile tributes to West Side Story, Michael Jasckson, and a well-publicised episode depicting several major characters losing their virginities. The series has even started being beaten in the coveted 18-49 demographic by new comedy series New Girl, which airs straight after Glee on FOX’s Tuesday night line-up.

Secondly, the show has come under intense scrutiny over the long-term futures of its stars Lea Michele, Corey Monteith, Dianna Agron and Chris Colfer, among others, as their characters approach graduation. At first, reports surfaced that several of the departing characters would be spun-off into their own series set in New York, depicting them attending a performing arts school, with even Colfer releasing a statement indicating his probable departure at the end of season three.

However, those rumours were later dismissed by show runner Ryan Murphy, but confusion remains over how exactly the stars would continue to figure into the show’s storylines once their characters have graduated.

Thirdly, Glee’s attempt to segue onto the big-screen got off to a lukewarm start when ‘Glee: The 3D Concert Movie‘ failed to perform as well as expected, grossing just $18 million at the box office. The movie opened to mixed critical reviews, and its failure marked the first significant sign of the franchise’s vulnerability after just two years of production.

Finally, but perhaps not surprisingly, the series has gone out of fashion with major award voters. Despite winning three Emmys for its freshman season, that tally decreased to one for its sophomore season, and the show walked away empty-handed at both this year’s Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

This is not surprising as Glee has been accused repeatedly of uneven storytelling and relying too heavily on stunt casting, with the last 12 months featuring appearances by Gwyneth Paltrow, Ricky Martin, Britney Spears and John Stamos. Add that to the fifteen actors already comprising the main cast, and the criticism begins to take on merit.

Ratings-wise, Glee has never been the number one show on television – it has yet to rank in the top 30 for a whole season – but its online presence, chart records and critical buzz have ensured it a prime spot on FOX’s broadcast schedule. Yet, facing a continuing ratings decline, the potential loss of its stars and dwindling industry support; FOX’s former powerhouse may be in need of some significant revamping if it hopes to stick to the same formula and with the same cast members for its as-yet-unconfirmed fourth season.

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