ABC is making good on its pledge to return "Six Degrees" to the schedule this season.

The freshman series will return to the airwaves at 9 p.m. ET Fridays starting March 23, likely for a seven-week run to complete its order of 13 episodes. Additionally, ABC has announced it will air a new drama, "October Road," in the post-"Grey's Anatomy" timeslot beginning Thursday, March 15 ("Men in Trees" will take a break for a few weeks, then return to finish its season).

"Six Degrees" averaged a shade under 10 million viewers per week last fall. That's not a bad number on its own, but the show, which aired after "Grey's" on Thursdays, was losing better than half its lead-in audience each week. Production also shut down for a time to iron out some creative issues.

The show follows the intertwined relationships of six New Yorkers, played by Campbell Scott, Hope Davis, Bridget Moynahan, Dorian Missick, Jay Hernandez and Erika Christensen.

"October Road" stars Bryan Greenberg ("One Tree Hill") as a heretofore successful young writer who's come down with a bad case of writer's block. After moving back home, he has to face the people he wrote about, some of whom are not too pleased with him.

The series, created by Scott Rosenberg ("High Fidelity," "Going to California") and "Alias" veterans Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec, also stars Laura Prepon ("That '70s Show"), Tom Berenger ("Into the West"), Brad William Henke ("Going to California"), Odette Yustman ("South Beach"), Warren Christie, Evan Jones, Jay Paulson, Slade Pearce and Geoff Stults.