THE SECRET IS OUT! ABC FAMILY ORDERS THIRTEEN ADDITIONAL EPISODES OF THE HIT ABC FAMILY SERIES "THE SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER"

Beverly Hills, CA (July 17, 2008) Paul Lee, president, ABC Family, announced an additional 13 episode order of the hit series "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" during the network's panel at TCA today at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. ABC Family's newest original series, created by Brenda Hampton ("7th Heaven"), set records in all key targets and debuted as the highest rated original series telecast in the Net's history.

"We just launched 'The Secret Life of the American Teenager' a couple of weeks ago to our highest original series numbers ever. We're thrilled obviously," said Lee. "This show has definitely hit the sweet spot of our Millennial audience. So I couldn't be more pleased to announce that we're picking up 13 additional episodes of the series."

"The Secret Life of the American Teenager," which premiered on Tuesday, July 1, set records in Households (2.1 million), Adults 18-34 (826,000), Adults 18-49 (1.2 million) and Viewers 12-34 (1.7 million), ranking a dominant No. 1 in its time slot versus all cable. In Total Viewers (2.8 million), "Secret Life" now stands as the Net's most-watched original series premiere ever. With series highs in for its third episode, season to date, "Secret Life" is ABC Family's No.1 original series of all time in Total Viewers (2.7 million), Adults 18-34 (821,000), Adults 18-49 (1.2 million) and Viewers 12-34 (1.8 million), and ranks as cable's No.1 program in the hour in the net's key demos. All three new episodes of "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" have ranked as the No.1 television downloads on iTunes the day after their respective premieres.

The heartfelt one-hour drama, which focuses on the relationships between families and friends and how they deal with an unexpected teen pregnancy, currently airs on the network on Tuesday nights from 8:00-9:00 p.m., ET/PT. One of the newly ordered additional episodes will air this September, and the additional 12 episodes are tentatively scheduled to return to the air in January '09, bringing the total episode order of Season One to 23.

The series boasts an incredible cast of characters played by Shailene Woodley ("The O.C.") as Amy, Molly Ringwald ("The Breakfast Club") as Anne, Mark Derwin ("The Bonnie Hunt Show") as George, India Eisley as Ashley, Kenny Baumann ("Eli Stone") as Ben, Daren Kagasoff as Ricky, Francia Raisa ("Cutting Edge 3") as Adrian, Megan Park ("Life with Derek") as Grace, Greg Finley ("Cold Case") as Jack and JorgeLuis Pallo ("Navy NCIS") as Mark. Guest starring are John Schneider ("Smallville") as Marshall, Josie Bissett ("Melrose Place") as Kathleen, Ernie Hudson ("Ghostbusters") and Steve Schirripa as Leo ("The Sopranos").

Created and executive-produced by Brenda Hampton, the series is produced by ABC Family in association with Brendavision.

Part of the Disney-ABC-TV Group, ABC Family, distributed in over 95 million homes, features original movies, series and specials reflecting today's families and entertaining and connecting with adults through relevant stories about today's relationships, all told with diversity, dysfunction, passion, humor and heart. ABC Family's programming is a mix of quality acquired series and theatricals, as well as original movies and scripted dramas. ABC Family is also the destination for Holiday events with "13 Nights of Halloween" and "25 Days of Christmas" branded programming events. ABC Family. A New Kind of Family.