Monday night, Castle earned its highest ratings ever, followed by an early third season renewal on Tuesday.

The show earned the highest rating in its 10 p.m. Monday time slot, 14.5 million viewers compared to a CSI: Miami rerun which earned CBS only 8.1 million viewers and NBC’s Law & Order which garnered only 6 million viewers. Castle’s ratings helped ABC dominated prime time with 19.9 million viewers and a 12.5 rating/20 share in households.

Those ratings were followed up with news that ABC was renewing the show for 22 episodes in  a third season. The slow-but-steady approach seemed to work for the series whose ratings have steadily increased since the show debuted last year.

Castle’s ratings actually seemed lackluster last year, but in a rare move, ABC stuck with the show and ordered a second season despite the slow start. The move clearly paid off, earlier in the season, long before Monday’s rating boom, the show began beating CSI: Miami in the same time slot.

So many mid-season TV shows debuting, so little time. This month kicks-off mid-season madness as the networks premiere a slew of new shows. Here’s a look at what is in store from ABC.

Wednesday, the alphabet network  debuts Better Off Ted, an office comedy set in a huge corporation. Star Portia de Rossi says, “Better Off Ted is kind of like a crazy [show] about a very moral guy who works in this very immoral, giant corporation.” The show is getting great reviews and will follow Scrubs which will hopefully give it a fighting chance to survive into next season.

Cupid, about a guy who claims he is actually Cupid, premieres on March 31st. The show, starring Bobby Cannavale and Sarah Paulson, is the second try at this concept by producer Rob Thomas whose first stab at the show lasted only 13 episodes back in the late 90s. The critics, so far, aren’t crazy about this update.

The Unusuals, premiering April 8th, is about “a motley crew of New York detectives split their time between solving crimes and working out their wacky personal problems.” The show has an impressive cast including Amber Tamblyn as a rookie detective just promoted from undercover-hooker work and Jeremy Renner (Angel) as her hot but unsympathetic new partner. So far the show has gotten a lot of positive buzz but its unclear how the audience will react to this offbeat cop drama.

Finally, the second episode of Castle is on tonight and if you missed last week’s don’t miss tonight. The show stars Nathan Fillon as a millionaire playboy mystery author and Stana Katic, as an edgy N.Y. detective. The two have great chemistry and the story is fresh, its definitely worth setting your Tivo!