ABC Picks Up 'Castle' For 22-Episode Third Season
ABC has announced that the Nathan Fillion starring drama, Castle will return for a 22-episode third season next fall. This is great news for the series, and wonderful news for fans. The pickup from ABC comes just one week after Castle hit series high ratings (and ABC got it's best scripted ratings in the timeslot in 14 years!) with 14.5 million viewers tuning in. Sure, the series had a great leadin with the return of Dancing with the Stars, but the charming power of Nathan Fillion as murder-novel writer turned quasi-detective Richard Castle kept those viewers in their seats for the next hour.
For me personally Castle is a huge victory simply because of the details involved. Last season Castle was a very modest success, and was even considered to be on the bubble at the end of the season, with no clear idea if it would return. ABC took a chance on the series, and brought it back for a second season. Again, the series started off relatively slow this fall, but has continued to pick up steam and grow it's audience. In a day and age where the networks hardly give most series 5 or 6 episodes to make it or break it, ABC deserves a bit of a pat on the back for sticking with Castle and giving it an opportunity for viewers to find this great show and enjoy it. Who would have thought a year ago that this series would ever have the power to beat CBS's hit CSI: Miami, which went head to head with a new episode last week when Castle won the timeslot. So here's to looking forward to another season of Castle, and hopefully a few more Buffy and Firefly tie-ins to go with it…Joss Whedon, you ready to guest-direct an episode yet?
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