ABC Family Orders 13 More Episodes Of The Secret Life of the American Teenager

 
Paul Lee, president, ABC Family, announced an additional 13 episode order of the hit series “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” during the network’s panel at TCA today at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. ABC Family’s newest original series, created by Brenda Hampton (“7th Heaven”), set records in all key targets and debuted as the highest rated original series telecast in the Net’s history.

"We just launched “The Secret Life of the American Teenager’ a couple of weeks ago to our highest original series numbers ever. We're thrilled obviously," said Lee. "This show has definitely hit the sweet spot of our Millennial audience. So I couldn’t be more pleased to announce that we’re picking up 13 additional episodes of the series."

“The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” which premiered on Tuesday, July 1, set records in Households (2.1 million), Adults 18-34 (826,000), Adults 18-49 (1.2 million) and Viewers 12-34 (1.7 million), ranking a dominant No. 1 in its time slot versus all cable. In Total Viewers (2.8 million), “Secret Life” now stands as the Net’s most-watched original series premiere ever. With series highs in for its third episode, season to date, “Secret Life” is ABC Family’s No.1 original series of all time in Total Viewers (2.7 million), Adults 18-34 (821,000), Adults 18-49 (1.2 million) and Viewers 12-34 (1.8 million), and ranks as cable’s No.1 program in the hour in the net’s key demos. All three new episodes of "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" have ranked as the No.1 television downloads on iTunes the day after their respective premieres.

The heartfelt one-hour drama, which focuses on the relationships between families and friends and how they deal with an unexpected teen pregnancy, currently airs on the network on Tuesday nights from 8:00-9:00 p.m., ET/PT. One of the newly ordered additional episodes will air this September, and the additional 12 episodes are tentatively scheduled to return to the air in January ’09, bringing the total episode order of Season One to 23.