ABC Grants Full Season Pickup to 'George Lopez'
October 17, 2002 08:32 PM ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -- Latino-flavored sitcom "George Lopez," showing greater ratings promise since its wobbly start last spring, received a full-season commitment on Thursday from the ABC network,
The announcement affirmed the view of the struggling Walt Disney Co. -owned network that the show named for its star, comedian George Lopez, has demonstrated wide enough appeal to cut across ethnic lines and draw a mass audience.
The program, which airs Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m., marks network television's first prime-time comedy series with a predominantly Hispanic cast since Norman Lear's short-lived "A.K.A. Pablo" in 1984.
While mounting a bilingual marketing campaign for the series on Spanish-language TV, ABC also has promoted the show to a wider audience as a good old-fashioned family sitcom.
As Lopez himself is fond of saying, "We're just a regular American family -- with great tans."
Lopez stars as a middle-class man caught between the pressures of family and his job at an airplane factory. The show initially drew lackluster ratings when launched in March as a late addition to ABC's lineup last season and had been seen as a long shot for renewal this fall.
But "Lopez" has steadily built its audience since its Oct. 2 return and is running ahead of its own average in the same half-hour last season, drawing 12.7 million viewers this week.
Moreover, in its first three telecasts this fall, "Lopez" has ranked No. 1 for its time period in total viewers and among adults under 50, the key demographic most coveted by advertisers, according to Nielsen Media Research.
October 17, 2002 08:32 PM ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -- Latino-flavored sitcom "George Lopez," showing greater ratings promise since its wobbly start last spring, received a full-season commitment on Thursday from the ABC network,
The announcement affirmed the view of the struggling Walt Disney Co. -owned network that the show named for its star, comedian George Lopez, has demonstrated wide enough appeal to cut across ethnic lines and draw a mass audience.
The program, which airs Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m., marks network television's first prime-time comedy series with a predominantly Hispanic cast since Norman Lear's short-lived "A.K.A. Pablo" in 1984.
While mounting a bilingual marketing campaign for the series on Spanish-language TV, ABC also has promoted the show to a wider audience as a good old-fashioned family sitcom.
As Lopez himself is fond of saying, "We're just a regular American family -- with great tans."
Lopez stars as a middle-class man caught between the pressures of family and his job at an airplane factory. The show initially drew lackluster ratings when launched in March as a late addition to ABC's lineup last season and had been seen as a long shot for renewal this fall.
But "Lopez" has steadily built its audience since its Oct. 2 return and is running ahead of its own average in the same half-hour last season, drawing 12.7 million viewers this week.
Moreover, in its first three telecasts this fall, "Lopez" has ranked No. 1 for its time period in total viewers and among adults under 50, the key demographic most coveted by advertisers, according to Nielsen Media Research.