‘Modern Family’ Makes Move to TBS

'Modern Family' premiered on ABC in September 2009.
'Modern Family' premiered on ABC in September 2009. (Image credit: Disney)

Modern Family, ABC's sitcom about a multigenerational family in Southern California, will premiere on TBS on Monday, September 25. 

In addition to Modern Family, TBS also will start airing longer daily marathons of The Big Bang Theory, which is cable’s top-rated acquired series, according to TBS’ owner, Warner Bros. Discovery.

“Our audience continually seeks out popular comedies like Friends, The Big Bang Theory and Modern Family, so now that we have all three of these iconic series on TBS, we can build an even bigger, more engaged audience,” said Julie Taylor, chief of content strategy and insights, U.S. Networks Group, Warner Bros. Discovery, in a statement. “We have the best in class content that drives an audience from daytime through primetime and we do that by leveraging our fans’ affinity for comedies and by creating daily destinations.”

The show, which was co-created by Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, was an enormous hit when it premiered on ABC in 2009. It sold in a preemptive syndication deal to Fox and USA Network and premiered on those platforms in 2013, but its ratings in syndication were never as strong as its broadcast network performance promised. The Fox Owned Stations’ contracts for the show end after this season and are unlikely to be renewed as Fox moves away from sitcoms.

Modern Family ended its run in April 2020 after its 11th season on ABC.

A five-time Emmy winner for Outstanding Comedy Series, Modern Family stars Ed O’Neill as family patriarch Jay Pritchett, who is remarried to Gloria (Sofia Vergara), who has a son, Manny (Rico Rodriguez). Jay’s daughter, Claire (Julie Bowen) is married to Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell), and they have three kids: Haley (Sarah Hyland), Alex (Ariel Winter) and Luke (Nolan Gould).  Jay’s son, Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) is married to Cameron (Eric Stonestreet), who have adopted a Vietnamese baby, Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons). 

Modern Family was produced by 20th Television in association with Steven Levitan Productions and Picador Productions. Besides Levitan and Lloyd, Paul Corrigan, Brad Walsh, Danny Zuker, Abraham Higginbotham, Jeffrey Richman, Elaine Ko, Stephen Lloyd, Vali Chandrasekaran, Jack Burditt, Jon Pollack and Jeff Morton also served as executive producers. The series is distributed by Disney Entertainment.

Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.