'Private Practice' Picked Up for Full SeasonOctober 20, 2007
With Private Practice's steadily impressive performance every week, the Grey's Anatomy spin-off has now been picked up as a full season. ABC has been assured enough by the show's ratings thus far to greenlight additional installments for its maiden season.
The network had originally ordered just 13 episodes for the freshman series to see how it fares in its primetime Wednesday slot at 9pm, against the likes of the returning Criminal Minds and the debuting Bionic Woman.
Last Wednesday's telecast generated close to 12 million viewers for Kate Walsh and the rest of the Oceanside Wellness crew of Private Practice. The numbers were apparently enough for ABC to order nine more episodes to make it a complete 22-episode first season. This made Private Practice the second new series to be picked up, following The CW's Gossip Girl.
Although the show's 11.8 million patrons on Wednesday kept Private Practice ahead of all programs for the 18-49 demographic, the series was actually down more than half a million viewers or 12% among that age bracket. It finished the night with a 4.3 rating/11 share according to Nielsen Media Research.
For the week ending October 14, Private Practice finished at number 18 on Nielsen's primetime ratings with 12.42 million viewers. It was the only one among the new programs to make the said countdown.
In other news, one of the stars on the series, Chris Lowell, is slowly but surely getting comfortable in his role on Private Practice. He was among the fresh faces Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice creator, Shonda Rhimes, introduced on Grey's in preparation for its spin-off. Lowell plays the hunky surfer receptionist at the wellness clinic. The young actor recently spoke about his entry into Grey's Anatomy and the experience he had in one of his sequences.
"I felt like I was in Dante's Inferno," Lowell said, referring to a scene where he walked into the wellness center in surfer shorts while several of the female characters ogled him. "They did it in super-slow motion. It looked like I came from an episode of Baywatch."
He has since felt better about his episodes, stating "They're taking it in a good direction," and adding he's “happy where it's going."
-Rosario Santiago, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: E! Online, Orlando Sentinel
SourceIt is good news, although I'm not too surprised. :)