ABC Family Renews 'Secret Life of the American Teenager' for Fifth Season

Disney’s ABC Family has picked up The Secret Life of the American Teenager for a fifth season, which will take the drama that helped redefine the network into its 100th episode. Teenager bows its fourth season March 26 at 8 p.m.

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The network is also expanding its comedy bench, handing out a series order for multicamera half-hour Baby Daddy, which stars Chelsea Kane and Tahj Mowry and revolves around a young man who becomes a father overnight when a baby is left on his doorstep by an ex-girlfriend.

ABC Family will get back into unscripted with Beverly Hills Nannies, a docuseries about a group of nannies working in the tony enclave. Evolution Media (Real Housewives of Orange County) will produce.

Both series begin production this spring and are set to bow this summer.  

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“We’re very proud of our deep bench of original content successfully built out over eight years of exceptional growth,” ABC Family president Michael Riley said in a statement. “This summer, we’re excited to continue to expand our content across key genres, adding another season to our groundbreaking drama, Secret Life, wonderful comedy and a return to reality programming as we continue to innovate with our ABC Family brand.’

Added Kate Juergens, executive vp original programming and development: “Our lineup continues to resonate with our audience, and we believe that the new programming will become strong additions to our slate. This new crop of shows blends nicely with our current schedule and will continue to deliver on our promise to create shows that our fans find engaging, optimistic and relatable.”

And as THR reported Wednesday, Tia Mowry and Tori Spelling will headline the original Christmas movie The Mistle-Tones, which will be part of ABC Family’s annual 25 Days of Christmas programming block.