The Middle Upcoming Season Newsies

Fresh off of Men of a Certain Age‘s brutal axing, Ray Romano has landed a guest spot on ABC’s The Middle, which of course stars his Everybody Loves Raymond wife, Patricia Heaton.

Romano will reunite with Heaton on the ABC sitcom’s third season premiere (airing Sept. 21), TV Guide Magazine reports. He’ll play a fella from Frankie’s past who just might be the person responsible for ruining her years-ago honeymoon with Mike (played by Neil Flynn). The only thing that would make this scenario sweeter is if Raymond mom-turned-Middle guest Doris Roberts resurfaces as Brick’s teacher in the same episode.

Capping a week chock full of ingenuous TV hirings, The Middle has scored a casting coup of its own: The ABC comedy has snagged Saturday Night Live vet Molly Shannon to guest star as Patricia Heaton’s onscreen sis!

A show rep declined to comment, but TVLine has learned exclusively that Shannon will play the never-before-seen sibling of Heaton’s harried housewife character, Frankie.

Viewers have already been introduced to Frankie’s parents, played by Marsha Mason and Jerry Van Dyke, but this will be our first time meeting the oft-referenced Janet.

Shannon’s hiring follows news that Heaton’s Everybody Loves Raymond hubby Ray Romano will appear in the show’s super-sized Sept. 21 premiere as a man from Frankie’s past.

EWWWWWWWWWWW Let's NOT have Ray on the show. I HATE HIM!

McKinley High’s loss is an Orson Elementary’s gain.

Chord Overstreet, whose enrollment on Fox’s Glee screeched to a halt over the summer, will resurface — this time on the teaching end of things — on ABC’s The Middle.


In the Sept. 28 episode of the third-year comedy, Overstreet will guest-star as Ralph Wilkerson, Brick’s new, young and idealistic fourth-grade teacher whose involved teaching methods run counter to Frankie and Mike’s “more relaxed” parenting style.


The Middle‘s hour-long Season 3 opener — featuring guest star Ray Romano — airs Wednesday, Sept. 21, at 8/7c.