ABC Family Favors Beautiful People

Cable net ABC Family has struck a deal to pick up eight more episodes (16 in all) of its summer original, Beautiful People. The hour mother-daughter drama, one of a pair of original scripted series the net launched this summer, is produced by Sony Pictures Television.

The series debuted Aug. 8, and the new episodes will be slated for 2006, no earlier than the spring.

Beautiful People and Lions Gate’s Wildfire, which has already been picked up for a second season, were ABC Family’s first scripted originals. Together, they helped Family average a healthy 1.05 million total viewers in prime during third quarter, is that up.

Last week, the network greenlit its third original drama, Kyle XY, from co-owned Touchstone TV.

It has several comedy pilots in development for 2006. Beautiful People, which stars Daphne Zuniga, centers on a pair of sisters and their mother who move to New York.