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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‘Cougar Town’, the hit US comedy about a group of friends in their 30s and 40s dealing with love and life, airs Tuesdays at 8:30pm on ABC, and returns to UK television screens this Friday, March 9, at 8:30pm on Sky Living.

Starring Courteney Cox (Friends) and executive produced by Bill Lawrence and Kevin Biegel (Scrubs, Spin City), the series revolves around Jules Cobb (Cox) and her dysfunctional friends who spend their time either at Jules’ house or at a local pub run by Jules’ neighbour Grayson, played by Josh Hopkins.

In this Friday’s season premiere, Jules and Grayson, who have been dating for over a year, take a major step forward in their relationship after Jules spends the episode trying to disprove her friends’ belief that she is a predictable person. Meanwhile, Jules’ son Travis (Dan Byrd) moves into a new student house while dealing with the presence of his silly yet well-meaning father Bobby (Brian Van Holt).

The results of both plots are as hilarious as one would come to expect from this show, which has solidified itself as one of the best-written ensemble comedies on contemporary television. Premiering alongside Emmy winner ‘Modern Family’, ‘Cougar Town’ exemplifies the modern family comedy, with innovative and creative plots which serve to echo the statement of Courteney Cox’s previous hit sitcom ‘Friends,’ that: ‘your friends can become your family’.

Set in an always-sunny cul-de-sac in Florida, the series provides consistent, razor-shop humour while still delivering family-friendly entertainment.

The cast and crew have recently hosted viewing parties across the United States – a move previously covered by Toonari Post – in an effort to trump up promotion for the show after it spent the majority of the last 12 months off the air due to various scheduling delays. But now, the Golden Globe nominated comedy is back on UK screens for a brand new 15-episode run.

Set to guest star in the forthcoming episodes are several actors from ‘Scrubs’, notably Sarah Chalke who portrayed Dr. Elliot Reid on the hit medical comedy for 9 years (2001-2010). Chalke will join ‘Cougar Town’ for four episodes as a love interest for Van Holt’s character, while her former co-star Ken Jenkins – Dr. Bob Kelso on ‘Scrubs’ – will return as Jules’ father for at least one episode.

One of this season’s most high-profile guest stars is David Arquette, real-life husband of Courteney Cox and her co-star in the ‘Scream’ franchise. Arquette and Cox are currently separated, but that has not stopped them from working onscreen once again, following their co-starring roles in all 4 ‘Scream’ films and Arquette’s appearance in a 1996 episode of ‘Friends’. Cox herself will step behind the camera to direct several episodes this season.

‘Cougar Town’ returns this Friday (March 9) at 8:30pm on Sky Living.

Image Courtesy of   https://www.facebook.com/CougarTown

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ABC’s hit sitcom will return for its third season on February 14, following an unprecedented, nationwide promotional campaign. Cougar Town, a half-hour comedy starring Courteney Cox (Friends, Scream), follows Jules Cobb (Cox) and her close circle of friends as they attempt to navigate their way through parenthood, marriage, dating and work.

The series has been off the air in the U.S. since last May after ABC opted against giving the show a spot on its fall schedule, offering only vague assertions that it would return at some point at ‘midseason‘. However, the series’ cast and crew have turned to social media in an effort to maintain public interest and to engage with their fan base in a face-to-face manner.

The main feature of their promotional campaign has been Cougar Town viewing parties, which have been in operation across the U.S. for several weeks now as cast and crew members travelled to various cities to interact with fans, offer special screenings of new episodes, take part in Q&A sessions, and to counteract any waning interest as a result of ABC’s delay in confirming a return date for the series, which had previously been airing alongside the network’s Emmy award-winning series Modern Family.

In a further effort to reignite the old and spark some new interest, series star Courteney Cox joined Twitter in January of this year and has since amassed over 90,000 followers. Cox has sent out over 1,000 tweets, the majority of which have sought to publicise the show and to offer Cougar Town fans exclusive behind-the-scenes footage.

As recently as Wednesday February 8, Cox was overseeing a competition to reward 50 fans with bottles of wine – in partnership with THECULTWINE.COM - provided that fans show proof of their age and make a pledge to watch Cougar Town on Tuesday February 14 at 8:30pm.

This is not the first time that cast-members involved with the series have reached out as a way of rewarding and strengthening their audience’s support. In an April 2011 episode, one character read out a telephone number which viewers could in turn call. If they got through, they could speak to actors, writers, and various others involved with the series.

These tactics have all been designed to keep Cougar Town on the public radar in spite of its middling ratings, with several fans going so far as to display billboards in support of the show during television coverage of this year’s Super Bowl, in the hopes of winning a walk-on role from the producers.

Show-runner Bill Lawrence recently expressed his frustration over the ‘flawed system‘ which monitors television ratings and which will ultimately determine the future of his series beyond this season, explaining that the primary hope of his self-funded campaigning is for:

a Nielsen family [to] … want to keep show alive. Ruining it for the masses or encouraging them to watch on their computer doesn’t matter until the system changes.

While there have been instances in the past of grass-roots campaigns being organised to combat network decisions – for example when Jericho fans persuaded CBS to reverse the series’ cancellation in 2007 – the involvement of the Cougar Town cast in this campaign has been particularly note-worthy, as has the fact the majority of their events have been planned entirely through the use of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

The true impact of Lawrence’s, Cox’s, the audience’s and others’ efforts to promote Cougar Town will be made apparent in the coming weeks when the series returns to ABC’s schedule and everyone involved attempts to lure, and hopefully increase, their 7.3 million weekly viewers from last season.

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