ABC Family grows up and grows ratings

It's obvious a TV network has hit the buzz sweet spot when teens, young adults and their parents are all talking about it.

When it serves up edgy "family" shows. When it dabbles here in sci-fi and there in hot-button issues. When it cannily crafts multigenerational sitcoms around popular personalities with proven appeal.

What, you thought I was talking about the late, lamented WB? About "Gilmore Girls," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Popular" and "Reba"?

Nope. Say hello to today's youthful favorite. ABC Family has assumed that mantle as the go-to home for viewers too old for Disney, too fresh-seeking to watch the networks' same-old formats and way eager to see shows about younger protagonists they can relate to - shows they can claim as their own.

ABC Family is where "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" has had millions glued to the problems of a pregnant high schooler, now coping with motherhood, around whom revolves an orbit of teen friends and their dysfunctional families.

ABC Family also is where "Kyle XY" showed a genetically engineered teen learning what it means to be a "real" human. It's where this summer's new "Huge" follows alienated teens through a weight-loss camp. (The season's two-part finale starts Monday at 9 p.m.) And it's where the just-arrived sitcom "Melissa & Joey" (8 p.m. Tuesday) reunites '90s teen faves Melissa Joan Hart ("Sabrina, the Teenage Witch") and Joey Lawrence ("Blossom"), as a harried politician and the "manny" who handles her household.

Showing their edge

These aren't shows you just watch. They're shows you feel, shows you can't stop talking about - even "Melissa & Joey," where the sitcom setup has Hart's character, an officeholder from a political family, taking in the teen daughter and son of her jailed sister and absconded brother-in-law.

"They're getting further away from those squeaky-clean family shows and getting edgier," says Damian Holbrook, the senior writer who covers teen and young adult programs for TV Guide Magazine. "They're speaking to today's teenagers, rather than the teenagers parents want their kids to be."

Indeed, "it's more grown-up than people are used to seeing me in," confirms Hart, the Sayville High grad who hit stardom as a teen 20 years ago in Nickelodeon's "Clarissa Explains It All." She's now 34 and a mother herself, yet her youthful "Sabrina" episodes still repeat on ABC Family daytime."I'm reaching younger audiences, but most of my original audience is about my age in their 30s, and I have 50-year-olds who watched those shows with their kids. I have this huge demographic [range] that's been following me, and I'm hoping to hit all of that."

That was the secret for The WB, which launched in 1995 and hit its stride five years later with shows like "Gilmore Girls." WB executives crowed then about "dual entry points" - meaning kids came to watch for the mature teen characters, and adults came to watch for the youthful parent characters, bringing in a broader audience than previous "family-friendly" shows. But by the time The WB and UPN merged in 2006 into The CW, that focus was muddled.

Enter ABC Family, created in 2001 by Disney / ABC's purchase of the floundering Fox Family Channel. ABC Family was running cartoons and old shows, but had little identity of its own. When former BBC America program chief Paul Lee arrived in 2004 (he left last month to tackle ABC's broadcast network), he hired Kate Juergens, a WB development executive who now serves as ABC Family's executive vice president of series programming.

They noticed the channel's most successful shows were its afternoon repeats of shows from - guess where - The WB. "We wanted to hold onto that audience in prime time," Juergens says, so they ordered up originals like "Wildfire," about a troubled 20-year-old paroled to a horse ranch, and "Kyle XY."

Hello, Molly

ABC Family tried gritty family with inner-city "Lincoln Heights" and got more glam with the college saga "Greek." But it really hit the jackpot with 2008's "The Secret Life of the American Teenager." Its weekly dose of teen pregnancy went too far for some detractors, but the show's hard-edge soap opera - and a co-star familiar to a previous teen generation, Molly Ringwald, now grown from '80s John Hughes films to play the teenager's mother - definitely pulled a wide-angle audience.

This summer, in its third season, "American Teenager" (8 p.m. Monday) has been cable's No. 1 scripted series among young adults (ages 12-34 and 18-34). The hot new mystery "Pretty Little Liars," this summer's guilty pleasure, is No. 1 among female teens. And "Huge" ranks as summer's No. 2 cable series debut.

ABC Family's audience has grown since its 2003 pre-identity days by 70 percent in adults 18-49. Among ages 12-34, viewership has more than doubled.

That is the channel's target "millennial audience," Juergens says - kids born between 1977 and 1997. "Things that work for us are to have a millennial lead, a family relationship that's core to the show, and a warmer, more optimistic tone," she says.

That's true, she adds, even in edgy-themed shows like "Teenager," "Huge" and a "Make It or Break It" (9 p.m. Tuesday) about teen athletes competing for the Olympics. "Kids today are dealing with issues. You feel things so deeply at that age. Everything has a huge significance because you're experiencing it for the first time."

Their hits have spread like 'Wildfire'

BY DIANE WERTS, Special to Newsday

Wildfire (2005-08) - Troubled young woman is paroled to a horse ranch.

Kyle XY (2006-09) - Brilliant teen with amnesia gets a new foster family that discovers he has mysterious powers.

Lincoln Heights (2007-09) - Veteran police officer moves his suburban family back to the inner city.

Greek (2007- ) - Freshman geek learns about college life in the fraternity-sorority system.

The Secret Life of the American Teenager (2008- ) - Pregnant teen, her family and friends cope with daily crises.

Make It or Break It (2009- ) - Teen athletes train for the Olympics.

Pretty Little Liars (June 2010- ) - Four private schoolgirls get mysterious messages threatening to expose their secrets.

Huge (June 2010- ) - Overweight teens confront themselves at weight-loss camp.

Melissa & Joey (August 2010- ) - Sitcom faves Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence return as a frenzied politician and her helpful "manny."

Tracing ABC Family's roots

BY DIANE WERTS, Special to Newsday

1977 - CBN is launched by Pat Robertson of "The 700 Club" as a Christian family-oriented cable-satellite channel.

1990 - The renamed Family Channel is spun out of Robertson's nonprofit operation. It aims more mainstream, running repeats like "Bonanza" and adding the annual "25 Days of Christmas" festival. Original programs include "Maniac Mansion."

1998 - Fox Family Channel debuts after Fox buys the operation (with the proviso that "The 700 Club" continue to air). The "13 Nights of Halloween" festival is added. Original programs include "State of Grace," but the channel relies heavily on kids shows and Major League Baseball games.

2001 - ABC Family is created after Disney / ABC purchases the channel for its cable portfolio. Initial plans to repurpose ABC network shows quickly give way to a patchwork of kids shows, "TGIF"-style sitcom repeats and family movies. Original series production aimed at teens and young adults ramps up with the 2004 hire of Paul Lee, who had launched BBC America (and who last month was promoted to program chief at ABC's broadcast network).