ABC commits to full season for Lopez sitcom

The Latino-flavored sitcom “The George Lopez Show,” exhibiting greater ratings promise since its wobbly start last spring, has received a full-season commitment from the ABC network.

The announcement affirmed the view of the struggling Walt Disney Co.-owned network that the show named for its star, comedian George Lopez, has demonstrated wide enough appeal to cut across ethnic lines and draw a mass audience.

The program, which airs Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m., features Lopez as a middle-class man caught between the pressures of family and his job at an airplane factory.

The show drew lackluster ratings when launched in March and had been seen as a longshot for renewal this fall.

But “Lopez” has steadily built its audience since its Oct. 2 return and is running ahead of its own average in the same half-hour last season, drawing 12.7 million viewers this week.

In its first three telecasts this fall, “Lopez” has ranked first in its time period in total viewers and among adults under 50, a key demographic for most advertisers, according to Nielsen Media Research.