‘Brothers & Sisters’ sweet on Lowe

Network TV hasn’t been especially kind to Rob Lowe since leaving “The West Wing” toward the end of that show’s fourth season. But he’s giving it another go, this time on a show that’s already up and running.

Lowe has taken a recurring part on ABC’s first-year drama “Brothers & Sisters.” He’ll play a Republican senator running for re-election and a love interest for Kitty Walker (Calista Flockhart) after he appears on her political talk show.

“He brings a maturity to the role on a show that’s about people who are no longer kids,” series creator Jon Robin Baitz tells Variety. Baitz wrote an episode of “The West Wing” while Lowe was still a regular and says he created the “Brothers & Sisters” character with the actor in mind.

Lowe is signed for six episodes of the show for the moment, with the possibility of more to follow.

Following his departure from “The West Wing,” Lowe starred in two short-lived series: “The Lyon’s Den” on NBC and “Dr. Vegas” on CBS. He had better luck with TV movies, starring in TNT’s adaptation of “Salem’s Lot,” CBS’ “The Christmas Blessing” and the Lifetime miniseries “Beach Girls.”

His big-screen credits include “Thank You for Smoking” and the “Austin Powers” movies. He’s currently working on the TNT movie “A Perfect Day,” which is scheduled to air in December.

Signs of life for ‘Brian’

ABC has asked for more scripts for its second-year show “What About Brian,” but as is the case with a lot of shows this fall, the network hasn’t committed to actually filming any more episodes.

The network has ordered four additional scripts for the drama, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That sort of order, which lets the network see where a show might be headed without the more costly production commitment, has become a common practice in this season’s breakout hit-deprived climate.

ABC has also given script orders to its new shows “The Nine,” “Help Me Help You” and “Men in Trees” without pulling the trigger on new episodes. NBC, CBS and FOX have made similar moves with some of their new series, including “Friday Night Lights,” “Justice,” “The Class” and “Studio 60.”

“What About Brian,” which focuses on a single guy (Barry Watson) among a group of mostly coupled-up friends, has seen its ratings improve some this season over its brief run last spring. So far this fall the show is drawing about 6.9 million viewers per week, up from 6.3 million last season.

It also does a good job of holding the audience from its lead-in, “The Bachelor,” retaining about 85 percent of that show’s total viewers and better than 90 percent of its adult 18-49 rating.

CW resurrects ‘Reba’

The CW will try to shore up its Sunday-night schedule later this month with a show that, for some time last spring, looked like it wouldn’t be back: “Reba.”

The sitcom starring Reba McEntire will make its return to TV on Nov. 19 with back-to-back episodes starting at 7 p.m. Beginning the following week, the network will air a repeat of the show at 7 p.m., followed by an original at 7:30 that will lead into “7th Heaven.”

That’s the second big change the new network has made to Sundays in the past month. The CW switched its Sunday and Monday lineups in early October, sending the long-running “7th Heaven” and the soon-to-be-canceled “Runaway” to Sundays and moving its comedy block anchored by “Everybody Hates Chris” and “Girlfriends” to Mondays.

The move worked out well for the comedies, whose ratings have improved some since the change, and less so for “7th Heaven,” which has seen its audience fall by about a million viewers. Adding “Reba” to the night will create a family-friendly block of programming from 7 to 9 p.m., although with the likes of “Sunday Night Football,” “The Amazing Race” and “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” as competition, a big ratings bump doesn’t seem likely.

“Reba” was The WB’s highest-rated sitcom for virtually all of the five seasons it aired there. The CW, though, initially seemed to be leaning toward dropping the series, which would have meant paying an eight-figure kill fee to producer 20th Century Fox TV left the show. The network decided to renew it after all, holding it in reserve for after the fall launch.

The CW ran a repeat “Supernatural” at 7 p.m. last Sunday and will continue to do so for the next couple of weeks.