ABC on Wednesday canceled “Hank,” the Kelsey Grammer-led series about a downsized chief executive taking up a frugal new life in the country.

Though that premise is seemingly in tune with the times, the series has been losing viewers, drawing an audience of only about 5 million people recently, well below its average of 6.6 million through five episodes, according to Nielsen. (That audience is still bigger than the 5.2 million that NBC’s “Parks & Recreation” has drawn this season.)

ABC will replace “Hank” with repeats of “Modern Family” over the next three weeks, although the network has five unaired episodes of “Hank” that it can use later to fill spots on its schedule.

[Source: NYTimes]

Great news! So although the rating went down this week to 8.5 million, 5.3/8 (Aren’t you watching live? Who uses Tivo/Hulu?), ABC has given full season, nine episode orders to three fall comedies: “Modern Family,” “Cougar Town” and “The Middle.”

We really like “The Middle” (coming from a “flyover state” in the Midwest), so watch it if you haven’t yet; but we love “Modern Family,” and we are very excited for the rest of the season.

Not yet renewed: ABC’s Kelsey Grammer half-hour “Hank,” but that is not a big loss (or a big surprise for that matter given the low ratings).