Fox Orders a Full Season of 'Lethal Weapon'

Among the new series to hit broadcast TV this fall, Lethal Weapon has not been the most reliable performer, but apparently it's doing well enough to encourage Fox to sign on for a full season of the series. The network announced this week that it's ordering five more episodes of the show, ensuring that the series will be around for the rest of the season.

A reboot of the classic movie starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, the Lethal Weapon series debuted to relatively strong ratings last month. Since that first episode, ratings for the series have fallen steadily, eventually sinking to level almost 25 percent below the ratings for the first episode. Even those lower ratings, though, were strong enough to keep the series' head above water. And the good news is that ratings for the fifth episode this week ticked back upward somewhat.

Fox's order for five more episodes of Lethal Weapon brings the total order to 18 episodes, four episodes short of the traditional full-season order of 22.

Lethal Weapon is one of several series this fall that reboot either film or older TV properties, and the crop of reboots is turning into a definite mixed bag in terms of ratings success. Lethal Weapon on Fox and MacGyver on CBS are both turning in acceptable, if not outstanding ratings, but The Exorcist on Fox and Frequency on The CW are so far failing to find significant audiences.