The fall has been kind to ABC; after recent full season orders for 'Revenge' and 'Suburgatory,' the Alphabet network is doubling down with pickups for two more of their freshman series, fantasy drama 'Once Upon a Time' and Tim Allen's 'Last Man Standing.'

Though 'Once' has only aired two episodes so far, it's already the highest-rated new drama of the season, managing an average 12.3 million viewers and a robust 4.0 rating in the coveted adults 18-49 demo. Allen's male-skewing comedy has seen some audience erosion since its premiere, but it's still performing well on Tuesday nights (12.7 million and a 3.7 demo), where ABC had previously struggled to make an impact.

Sophomore comedy 'Happy Endings' has seen series-high ratings in recent weeks, and finally seems to be catching on with viewers in its post-'Modern Family' slot, which has earned it a full 22 episodes. (Ah-mah-zing!)

Bad news for 'Pan Am' and 'Man Up' though ...

"What's this stuff?"
"Some TV show...supposed to be good for ya."
"Did you try it?"
"I'm not gonna try it, you try it."
"I'm not gonna try it."
"Hey, let's get Mikey..."
"Yeah."
"He won't watch it...he hates everything!"

We give a lot of depressing news here at TV Squad. News about shows being canceled, shows put on hiatus, shows delayed, episode orders on shows cut, shows moved to a bad time slot, characters killed off of shows, etc. So it's good when we actually have some good news about a show, especially one that isn't a huge hit.

NBC has given a full season order to Life, the quirky detective show that seems to be on a different night each week. It started the season on Mondays at 10, and we've seen it on both Fridays and Wednesdays. But the Peacock Network seems to have faith in the show and wants a full 22 from Charlie Crews and crew.

This is good news. One, the show isn't a reality show. And two, it's a good show.

Looks like CBS has a hit on its hands.

The Mentalist, the Tuesday night Simon Baker drama, has just been given the green light for a full season. The show is averaging 15.4 million viewers an episode, which is great considering it's in its first season and there are 22 other police procedurals on the network right now.

But The Mentalist is a bit different than those shows. This show runs completely on the personality of Baker, even if he does have a team of investigators that he is part of. The show is really counting on Baker to sell this character, to be charming and intelligent and funny and all that. Plots and scripts can take a show to great places, but if the lead character doesn't work it can really tilt a show out of balance. Baker makes this character work.

Some interesting news coming out of ABC today, one of which is a surprise, the other of which isn't:

First the non-surprise: Both TV Week and Kristin Dos Santos at E! Online are reporting that Pushing Daisies has been picked up for the rest of the season. That means 22 episodes of non-contact cuteness from Ned and Chuck. Ratings for the first three episodes have been solid, and -- at least based on the fun third episode -- worries about how the show might operate with budget restrictions have been so far unfounded.

The surprising ABC news: The former Ms. Veitch is also reporting that three more scripts have been ordered for Bruce McCulloch's Carpoolers, bringing the total order to 12 episodes. Despite the pedigree, the show hasn't been all that impressive so far either in quality or in the ratings. This makes me wonder if ABC is ordering more scripts in case there's a writers' strike.

NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly started his network's portion of the TCA press tour by announcing full-season renewals for four shows: My Name Is Earl, Heroes, Law & Order: SVU, and The Office. This means all four shows will be back for new seasons in the fall. Reilly called those shows, and a number of others, "tent posts" that he thinks will bring the network back to a much stronger position than it has been in recent years.

In other news, Reilly announced the pickup of a new improv pilot called Thank God You're Here, where improv comics will don a costume unknown to them, enter a scene, and attempt to improvise through it. It will be hosted by David Alan Grier, and the improv comic's skills will be "judged" by Dave Foley. Where does the name of the show come from? Well, when the comic enters with his costume on, the other comics in the scene will say, "Thank God You're Here!" Clever, ain't it?

More on the executive session later today.

TV Squad HQ just got a press release from CBS; they've decided to pick up a full season of their most popular new show, Jericho.

According to the press release, the show has averaged 11.3 million viewers, a 48% increase from Wednesdays last year, and all the desirable demographics are up. Overall, the show is helping the network see its biggest single-day ratings growth compared to last season. So, even though the show is not a "hit" by normal standards (Grey's and CSI, for instance, each drew over 20 million viewers last week), it's doing well enough to warrant a full season.

At the very least, we'll get a chance to see the entire "town stranded in a nuclear war" plot play out. I'm especially intrigued by that Hawkins guy; not sure if he's a good guy or a bad guy yet, but his character is keeping me interested in the show. The press release is after the jump.

The Sci Fi Channel knows where its bread is buttered. Sure, people love both Stargate shows and the new show Eureka is getting good reviews. But the channel's most popular show is Battlestar Galactica. That's why Sci Fi is reportedly deciding to put all of its original shows on a six-month hiatus so it can run the entire third season of BSG without reruns. The goal, according to programming executive Mark Stern, is to have original programming throughout the year. So, according to this plan, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis will take a break in September and return in March, and BSG's season will run from October to March.

More information can be found here. Of course, Sci Fi might change its mind. But this info came from Comic-Con, and if there's any place where you can find reliable information about the Sci Fi channel, it's there.

[thanks to reader Mack Swift for the tip.]