Fox's "New Girl" invited to stay for full TV season

Actress Zooey Deschanel arrives at the Teen Choice Awards in Los Angeles August 7, 2011.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It looks like Fox television's "New Girl" will be around for awhile.

The TV comedy starring Zooey Deschanel got the first full season order of the new TV season on Wednesday, after proving one of the brightest spots in Fox's fall line-up.

Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly said the network had ordered an additional 11 episodes of the program, after just two have been broadcast. With more than nine million viewers, "New Girl" is Fox's highest-rated fall comedy debut in 10 years.

"We love the charming Zooey Deschanel and the entire cast," said Reilly. "It's great that audiences have responded so positively so far and we're confident that even more people will embrace the show -- and more comedy on FOX -- this season."

The comedy about a ditsy 20-something woman and her three male housemates has so far outshone Fox's costly and much-hyped new dinosaur adventure series "Terra Nova", which attracted just nine million viewers when it debuted on Monday.

It has also bested "Glee" -- the 2010 pop culture sensation whose audience is falling in its third season. Some 8.3 million people watched the quirky musical comedy on Tuesday.

Fox's other headline new venture "The X Factor" drew a smaller (12.1 million) total audience than many industry watchers had expected for its premiere last week.

Creator Simon Cowell had predicted that "X Factor" would trump his old singing contest "American Idol", also on Fox, in the ratings. But Fox executives say that last week's debut audience for "X Factor" was in line with the network's expectations.

After the first week of the new 2011-12 TV season, Fox was the top network in primetime among 18-49 year olds most prized by advertisers, while CBS came first in overall viewers for the third straight year.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)