‘Grey’s Anatomy’ season 9, ‘Castle’ season 5 get a little longer

When you consider some of the recent patterns by ABC when it comes to picking up additional episodes of their network dramas, the following really show not be that surprising to hear. However, it does still bring a rather large smile to our face.

ABC announced this weekend that rather than having the standard 22 episodes that you traditionally see for a full season of a network show, “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Modern Family,” and “The Middle” will have two extra episodes, bringing their total to 24. This is something that these shows should be familiar with, though it does come just mere hours after the sad news that the “Grey’s Anatomy” spin-off “Private Practice” is going to be ending after six seasons.

As for “Castle,” ABC also announced that they are giving the Nathan Fillion murder mystery show one additional episode, which brings its final total to 23. This is especially important when it comes to capitalizing on the “Dancing with the Stars” lead-in, which does help to support “Castle” when it comes to total viewers, even if the ballroom competition is one of the oldest-skewing shows on TV at this very moment.

All of the shows mentioned here are still pretty early in their new seasons, and it could be a while before we really manage to find out just where their stories are going to end up heading. No matter what, it would be a shocker if any of them does not return for another year in the fall of 2013, which will likely mark the end for “Grey’s Anatomy” and could mark the end for “Castle,” unless they want to take the show to a seventh season before closing the door. (We know that Nathan Fillion is a fan of ending a show before it starts to grow stale.)

What do you think about this news?