ABC Endorses "Cougar Town," "Modern Family," "The Middle"

ABC had picked up three of its new Wednesday comedy series, which may sound innocuous enough but serious students of TV know is practically historic. ABC is not known for its comedies; ABC is, after all, the network of "According to Jim."

The lucky three are: Patricia Heaton's "The Middle," Ed O'Neill-and-ensemble's "Modern Family," and Courteney Cox's "Cougar Town."

There is a fourth comedy in that Wednesday lineup: Kelsey Grammer's "Hank." Its absence from this list is ominous.

Meanwhile, NBC has canceled cop drama "Southland" before it has even started its second season, according to trade reports. NBC scrapped the show's already-postponed October debut after discovering the gritty 10 o'clock series -- which debuted last spring and featured bleeped-out expletives and a youngf boy getting gunned down before the first commercial break of the first episode -- was too dark for 9 o'clock. Maybe they should have thought of that before they gave 10 o'clock to Jay Leno?