Following Friday's scripted renewals, ABC has handed out orders for its reality properties. Unsurprisingly, Dancing With the Stars, Shark Tank, The Bachelor and America's Funniest Home Videos are all set to return -- while The Taste also scores a green light for a second season. The orders also coincides with news of Dancing With the Stars being condensed into one weekly two-hour broadcast.
Shark Tank has been one of the network's biggest successes of the last season. Airing on Fridays at 9 p.m., the entrepreneurial competition from Mark Burnett's One Three Media is up 17 percent with adults 18-49, averaging a 2.1 rating in the key demo. Hitting a series high in November with a 2.3 rating, Shark Tank has helped drive ABC to regular Friday wins in the demo while neighboring comedies and 20/20 have been far less consistent performers. It will continue to air in its time slot.
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With Dancing With the Stars' ratings glory days behind it -- this latest cycle is averaging a 2.6 rating among adults 18-49 -- ABC is condensing the series into one two-hour episode airing every Monday. The combination of the performance and results show takes the series off of Tuesday night for the first time in years. Still, Dancing With the Stars is only a shade behind American Idol in total viewers, and its performance show ranks among TV's top 10 most-watched broadcasts. What remains to be seen is whether ABC will continue to air two cycles a season.
The Bachelor, which will enter its 18th cycle under the renewal, was up significantly with its most recent cycle. The March 11 finale brought in a 3.5 rating with adults 18-to-49, a 14 percent spike from the previous season's ender, proving that there is still a lot of life left to the dating series. Spinoff Bachelor Pad is still on hold and won't air this summer, and the next run of The Bachelorette premieres later this month.
Standby America's Funniest Home Videos, which has produced a whopping 500 episodes in its 23 seasons, will also be back. The Tom Bergeron-hosted Sunday hour most recently averaged a 1.5 rating with adults 18-49 and 6.7 million viewers.
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The Anthony Bourdain and Nigella Lawson fronted The Taste, ABC's latest play in the culinary space, will come back for a second season despite significant dips towards the end of its freshman run. The series averaged a 1.8 rating with adults 18-49 during its recent run.
Not included in the round of pickups is Splash. Though it was evenly matched with The Taste in its freshman ratings, a 1.8 rating with adults 18-49, it saw significant dips towards the end of its runs. Splash plummeted from a robust 2.6 rating among adults 18-49 to just a 1.1.
Wipeout, which has previously seen its renewals come well after upfronts, started its current run just last week. Skipping its regular summer launch pad for a May opener, the show dropped 40 percent to a premiere low of a 1.3 rating with adults 18-49. Word is also still out on Wife Swap, both the Celebrity and regular editions.
