Television watchers may be tracking the week-to-week success of the ABC drama "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." to see what the series means to the overall Marvel cinematic universe, but after only three episodes, the network is happy enough with the results to take the show until the end of the year.

ABC has picked up "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." for a full order of episodes in the 2013 - 2014 season. Typically, orders are handed out to shows that networks see long term potential in (NBC's "The Blacklist" and Fox's "Sleepy Hollow" have also received pickups for the years), while from a creative standpoint, the move means that producers Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen are now free to shape their stories with an end point in mind.

"Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." returns Tuesday, October 15 with an episode entitled "Eye-Spy" written by executive producer Jeffrey Bell.

Official Press Release

ABC has picked up new hit drama "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." for a full season, it was announced today by Paul Lee, president, ABC Entertainment Group.

The series opened as TV's highest-rated drama debut in nearly 4 years (since 11/03/09) and ranks as the No. 1 new show of the 2013-14 season among Adults 18-49 (4.0 Live + Same Day rating/5.7 Live + 3 Day rating). On average, "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." is No. 1 in its Tuesday, 8 o'clock time period, and has more than doubled the young adult delivery in the hour year-to-year (+150%).

"Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." stars Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson, Ming-Na Wen as Agent Melinda May, Brett Dalton as Agent Grant Ward, Chloe Bennet as Skye, Iain De Caestecker as Agent Leo Fitz and Elizabeth Henstridge as Agent Jemma Simmons.

"Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Marvel's first television series, was co-created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen ("Dollhouse," "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog"), who also serve as executive producers along with Jeph Loeb ("Smallville," "Lost," "Heroes") and Jeffrey Bell ("Angel," "Alias"). "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." is produced by ABC Studios and Marvel Television, and is broadcast in 720 Progressive (720P), ABC's selected HDTV format, with 5.1-channel surround sound.