The new college dramedy, Greek, has been picked up for an additional 10 episodes by ABC Family. The new series has been doing well in the ratings, with its third episode scoring high in key demographics, including females 12-34 (476,000), teens (370,000) and female teens (302,000). It drew in an average of 1 million viewers.
Greek, which premiered on ABC’s sister cable network on July 9, follows its central character, Rusty (Jacob Zachar) as he attempts to erase his geeky high school persona by entering the most popular fraternity in college. Meanwhile, Rusty’s older sister, Casey (Spencer Grammer), a well-established sorority member, is not too happy about his plans to infiltrate the Greek system.
Other cast members include Scott Foster as Cappie, Jake McDorma as Evan, Paul James as Calvin, Clark Duke as Dale, Amber Stevens as Ashleigh and Dilshad Vadsaria as Rebecca. The series is directed by Gil Junger (If Only) and executive-produced by Shawn Piller and Lloyd Segan.
Although Greek’s ratings success is an indication of its growing following, the series has been criticized by some real-life fraternities and sororities for presenting what they believe is a “superficial” and “stereotypical” image of greek life. They insist that there is something deeper to the experience than what is seen on television, noting that their respective organizations actually focus on community service and scholarship.
“It excessively shows the primary objective of fraternity guys to be beer and girls, which is not the case at Iowa State,” Michael Cooley, a senior and fraternity member at Iowa State, explained. “If they used real greek stories and greek people in their show, then it would have the potential to be a good promoter of greek life.”
The additional episodes of Greek are scheduled to air in early 2008. Meanwhile, fans can catch more of their favorite show every Monday night at 9/8c on ABC Family.
-Lisa Claustro, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Zap2it, TV Week
(Image Courtesy of ABC Family)
Staff Columnist, BuddyTV
