ABC will not be "reuniting" Friends Matthew Perry and Courteney Cox on Wednesday nights after all. Instead, the network has decided to have Perry's new workplace comedy, Mr. Sunshine, occupy Cougar Town's Wednesdays-at-9:30 time slot for nine weeks starting February 9.
Cougar Town airs a new episode this Wednesday, breaks for the holidays and then returns January 5 with at least three new episodes before making way for Mr. Sunshine. The Cox-fronted comedy will reclaim its slot effective April 13.
ABC's midseason plan also has found a place for Happy Endings, its last unscheduled bit of 2010-11 TV season business. An ensemble comedy led by Elisha Cuthbert (24) and Zachary Knighton (FlashForward), it will premiere Wednesday, April 13, at 10/9c, leading into "fan favorite" repeats of Modern Family.
ABC's decision to cap its Wednesday slate with two comedies echoes NBC's own midseason plan to run six sitcoms back-to-back on Thursdays, pairing 30 Rock and Outsourced in the 10 o'clock hour.
With Maura Tierney's The Whole Truth dismissed from ABC's Wednesday line-up as of this week, the new medical drama Off The Map (exec-produced by Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes) will fill the 10 pm void starting January 12, wrapping its run by the time Happy Endings debuts.