After three seasons on ABC, Cougar Town made the unorthodox move of switching to cable for season four on TBS.  I enjoy spending time with these characters, so I was happy they found a way to stay on the air.  I have wondered how the experiment worked out for TBS.  The verdict is in: TBS renewed Cougar Town for a fifth season with 13 episodes, expected to premiere in 2014.  Per TVBTN, this season averaged 2.8 million viewers (1.3 rating for the 18-49 demo) in Live + 7 ratings (which includes DVR views within 7 days after air).  That’s meager, but clearly sustainable for TBS.  Also, I imagine ABC Studios was motivated to find the right price point to get to 89 total episodes for a nice syndication package.

Forget business for a second.  We get to spend more time in Cougar Town, and that is a good thing.  Now back to business: Hit the jump for the press release with all the details.

TBS established itself as cable-channel-as-lifeboat when it offered Conan O’Brien safe harbor in their lineup after what I’ll call “The Jay Leno Incident.”  Its latest revived series is ABC’s discarded /Courteney-Cox‘s-Cleavage-helmed Cougar Town, much to the toast of Big Carl (and Big Joe) lovin’ fans everywhere.  The biggest question though surely is whether or not the show is similar to its old format, and that I can answer without hesitation: 100% yes.  Though the network has changed, there’s no sense of transition, just relief to see the familiar faces of the cul-de-sac.  

The other question of course is whether ABC was right to cancel it in the first place.  After three seasons, does the show still have life?  How long can we go on watching six alcoholics sit around and change the use of common phrases (“I’m going to use ‘junk in the trunk’ to mean emotional baggage.” “Approved!”) and play Penny Can?  The answer lies behind the jump, with my full preview of the upcoming season.

Before the 2012 Emmy Nominations are officially announced (July 19th), I wanted to jump in and highlight some of what I believe to be some of the best underrated performances on television this year.  Putting aside some of the perennial winners, the following discussion for each of the major categories is likely to mention plenty of names who won’t get Emmy mentions this year, but certainly should (and others who may get a nod, but likely won’t win).  Hit the jump for the (spoiler-free!) list that is not meant to be exhaustive (after all, I do watch an unhealthy amount of TV but I’m not caught up on everything), but hopefully brings at least a few of those dark horses to light with the recognition they deserve.

Apparently ABC just couldn’t justify keeping Cougar Town around for another season, but fans need not worry about losing the Courteney Cox led comedy series. Today TBS sent out a press release announcing they had rescued the series and picked it up for a fourth season that will begin airing sometime in early 2013. All the stars will be back for at least one more round, and if the ratings deliver on the cable network, we may get even more than a fourth season. It’s refreshing to know that series have more options for survival at this point in TV history when primetime networks aren’t willing to keep a show around to please fans.

And yet they wonder why they have to cancel and scarp so many terrible shows after they cancel the good ones? If Community sticks around like we’re all hoping, maybe we’ll get some more crossover action too. Anyway, for the full press release with this good news, hit the jump!

For all those fans of the ABC comedy series Cougar Town who have been eagerly awaiting the delayed third season, here’s some good news. The network has just revealed that Courteney Cox and company will return to TV on Tuesday, February 14th at 8:30/7:30c. The series returns after Work It, the Bosom Buddies copycat was quickly shut down after burning everyone’s eyes out, vacated the time slot following Last Man Standing. And as a bonus, you can check out the third season poster after the jump.

As part of the network’s TCA Press Tour presentation, President of ABC Entertainment Group, Paul Lee, took some time to talk about where things stand with some of their popular and long-running series, how some of their freshman series were received, and their hopes for some of their upcoming programs.

Lee said that the horror thriller The River (premiering on February 7^th) is set for only eight episodes, but there is the plan to have it be a long-running series. He is also thrilled with the performance of Once Upon A Time, is optimistic about the future of Pan Am, and said that while they made a good attempt, he doesn’t think they quite breathed life into the Charlie’s Angels franchise through the recent series. And, while he has high hopes for how Cougar Town will play when it returns, Lee is still unsure of when exactly that return will be. Check out what he had to say about all the series after the jump:

Another midseason schedule, another great TV series missing. Just a few days ago NBC announced their midseason schedule, and along with it came the news that Community will be benched for the foreseeable future. A similar scenario is now happening with ABC’s midseason premiere schedule. While their announcement today includes premiere dates for GCB (which will replace Pan Am in the post-Desperate Housewives slot starting in March), the Ashley Judd drama Missing, the horror-drama The River, the comedy Work It, and a new season of Dancing with the Stars, the fantastically quirky sitcom Cougar Town is nowhere to be found. Hit the jump for more, including a list of the premiere dates.

Earlier this month, we listed the nominees for the first Critics’ Choice Television Awards from the Broadcast Television Journalists Association. Now the awards have been handed out and we have the full list of winners which include Modern Family rightfully winning “Best Comedy Series” and Mad Men taking home “Best Drama Series” along with star Jon Hamm winning “Best Actor in a Drama Series.” The always fantastic Neil Patrick Harris took home the award for “Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series” for his consistently hilarious work on How I Met Your Mother, while the award for “Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series” ended up in a tie. See which actresses are sharing the award, as well as the rest of the winners, after the jump.

Fans of the NBC comedy series Community should recall a certain episode (directed by Submarine helmer and IT Crowd star Richard Ayoade) where Abed (Danny Pudi) nearly missed out on his big surprise birthday party while having a Dinner with Andre inspired conversation with Jeff (Joel McHale) where the eccentric pop culture obsessed character revealed his escapades in a walk-on role on the ABC comedy series Cougar Town. Well, in an awesome twist, Abed actually showed up early on in the hour-long season finale of Cougar Town and he completely steals the scene away from Dan Byrd and Busy Phillips, two of the series regulars. Though it’s just a tiny moment, this is seriously one of the coolest crossovers I’ve ever seen on TV, and you can see it in all its glory after the jump.

The 2010-2011 season of TV is just now nearing the halfway point, but ABC has decided to preemptively pick up six of their successful series for another season. Today, via press release, the network announced the crime drama Castle, the half-hour comedy Modern Family, the sex comedy Cougar Town, the sitcom The Middle and the medical dramas Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice will all be around in the fall another season. Frankly, the only series I’m glad to have returning is Modern Family, which has quickly become one of the best comedies on TV. How about you?

If you’ve seen and fallen in love with Shaun of the Dead and/or Hot Fuzz, chances are you wondered to yourself, “Where can I get more of this brilliance?” and found your way to the British TV series Spaced which was created by Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes.  Edgar Wright directed all fourteen episodes of the series, including the amazing season two episode, “Gone”.  In the episode, the characters engage in massive gunfights except instead of using guns, they’re using their fingers.

Last night’s episode of ABC’s Cougar Town decided to pay homage to Spaced‘s comic genius by having their own finger-gun-showdown.  A close friend has been telling me that I really need to get into Cougar Town and I’m starting to understand why.  Hit the jump to check out the clip from Cougar Town and the clip from Spaced.  I won’t spoil how Cougar Town specifically gives a shout-out to Spaced. And if you’ve never seen Spaced, all of the episodes are on Hulu.  You have your assignment for the weekend.

With Terry Gilliam’s new short film, The Legend of Hallowdega, premiering on LegendofHallowdega.com tomorrow after the AMP Energy Juice 500 race (the first chapter will be sneaked on ESPN just prior to the race at 1pm), I was able to get on the phone with David Arquette the other day.  In the short film, Arquette plays a techno-geek paranormal expert who teams up with an investigative news show (Justin Kirk) to explore the mysteries around the Talladega Superspeedway.  They’re trying to figure out if the race track was built on  an old Indian burial ground and that’s the reason for the spectacular car crashes.

During the interview we talked about how happy he was to work with Terry Gilliam and how he’s been a fan his entire life.  Of course with Arquette also starring in Wes Craven’s Scream 4, we also talked about what it was like to return to Woodsboro and what can fans expect. In addition, Arquette talked about how he’s going to be directing an episode of CSI: Miami and Cougar Town and some of his other films projects.  Hit the jump to either read the transcript or listen to the audio:

Actress Busy Philipps plays Laurie Keller, the brassy assistant of Jules Cobb (Courteney Cox), on the ABC comedy Cougar Town. Prior to that, she had memorable roles on such TV series as Dawson’s Creek, E.R., Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Love Inc., Undeclared and the critically acclaimed Freaks and Geeks, from Judd Apatow and Paul Feig, and in such feature films as He’s Just Not That Into You, Made of Honor and White Chicks. Now, she can also be seen in the new Atom.com web series, Jason Nash Is Married, in which comedian Jason Nash takes vignettes from his popular one-man show about married life as a struggling artist.

In this exclusive interview with Collider, Busy Philipps talked about the freedom and creativity in doing a web series, the escapism she gets through her hilarious character on Cougar Town, their upcoming Halloween and Thanksgiving episodes, and juggling her career with motherhood. She also reminisced about how incredible it is to still be remembered for her work as Kim Kelly on Freaks and Geeks, which she did over 10 years ago. Check out what she had to say after the jump.  You can click here to watch the first episode of Jason Nash Is Married.

Today, via press release, ABC announced a bit of a Friends reunion with Jennifer Aniston making a guest star appearance on Courteney Cox’s comedy series Cougar Town. If this situation seems familiar, it’s because these two Friends stars also appeared together in Cox’s other short lived FX series Dirt.

Though the press release didn’t include details on Aniston’s stint on the show, EW has come through with some information from executive producer Bill Lawrence.  Lawrence says, “She’s going to play [Courteney Cox's character's] shrink named Bonnie. Kind of a get-too-involved-in-her-life-type of therapist. Those guys are so close in real life they kind of do that for each other anyway. Bonnie has the life Jules [Cox] wishes she has.” Apparently Cox wanted to make sure the show found its feet before asking Aniston to guest star on the show. The idea is for Aniston’s character to be a therapist that Cox’s character has been seeing for awhile, so there’s definitely an opportunity for more guest appearances down the road.

The month of May brings many a season finale to our airwaves; over the next couple weeks, I will recap the finales a few of our favorite shows here at Collider, and use that as a jumping off point to discuss the direction of the season and the show as a whole.  After years of struggling with the live-action comedy genre, ABC mostly found success with their slate centered around  families of various shapes and sizes: the titular extended cadre of Modern Family, the close-knit group of friends of Cougar Town, and the middle-class Midwesterners of The Middle.  (Let’s just forget Hank ever existed, shall we?)

Hit the jump for a spoiler-filled dissection of each show’s finale, as well as the overall arc of the debut seasons of the three ABC comedies.