‘Last Man Standing,’ ‘Malibu Country’ receive more scripts; ‘Nashville’ full season

When the premiere numbers came in for “Last Man Standing” along with new series “Malibu Country,” ABC executives were probably doing a conga line through the company hallway while screaming “TGIF is back.” However, the mood changed when both shows dropped off by a substantial margin for their second episodes last week.

Nonetheless, it’s clear that the two sitcoms have done enough to receive some additional consideration, and with that in mind, the network has still decided to order three more scripts for both programs, thus bringing their current total for the season to 16. Depending on their performance over the next few weeks, this could either increase, stay the same, or these scripts could never be made into episodes at all.

Really, one of the questions ABC may have to ask themselves at this very moment is just how much of a gain is enough to satisfy the bottom line. After all, the network already has a decent Friday performer in “Primetime: What Would You Do?” that could air instead of these two comedies, so this is not going to be the case where they will renew these shows unless they are really performing well (especially with Tim Allen earning a pretty large salary that will only increase the longer the show lasts).

These two shows are among the five that ABC is still deciding on, as “Last Resort,” “Nashville,” and “666 Park Avenue” are all waiting on their fates. Based on the episode ratings along with DVR figures, it is probably safe to guess that the network will likely keep “Nashville” for the full year, and then find a way to replace the other two struggling shows at midseason.

Do you think these two comedies will go the distance? We want to hear some more of your thoughts below!

Update: ABC has also handed “Nashville” a full season, as expected.