‘Last Man Standing,’ ‘Nashville’ renewed by ABC; Cristela Alonzo series ordered

ABC is starting to shore more and more of their primetime schedule up for next season, and this included some pickup of shows that were firmly on the bubble a little while ago.

“Last Man Standing” – We begin here with a show that has never been a ratings warrior for the network on Friday night, but it has at least performed decently and provided a nice source of income for its stars. The main reason for the delay here was simply due to the fact that there were negotiations with the studio to tie this with other shows, and that Tim Allen is a little more expensive than your average comedy star at this point in the show’s run. Getting this to syndication, though, was clearly an order of importance.

“Nashville” – The continuation of this show has to be thanks mostly to the devoted fans, and also the occasional awards buzz that the show receives. It’s not because of the ratings, which were not very good. The biggest surprise to us is simply that this show got a full 22 episodes again, given that it feels like the perfect candidate to get a 13-15 episode order, where it can tell stories that are a little more cohesive.

Also, cheers to ABC for bringing in some diversity with comedies “Fresh Off the Boat” (think “The Goldbergs” meets “Fresh Prince of Bel Air”) and also “Cristela,” which is the true underdog story of pilot season so far. This Cristela Alonzo series about a Mexican-American woman in law school was barely acknowledged early on, but over time buzz built to the point where this is now one of the crown jewels in the network’s comedy lineup. We may even be willing to wager that it could get the timeslot after “Modern Family.”