CHICAGO (thefutoncritic.com) -- FOX has picked up its summer drama "The O.C." for a full season of 22 episodes. The series will wrap its summer run next week before returning on October 30 in its new fall home of Thursdays at 9:00/8:00c.

The pickup comes as little surprise as the Warner Bros. Television-produced series once again hit highs in households and adults 18-49 last night (according to fast national data), winning its time slot in the latter category for the fifth straight week. The network had previously committed to six additional scripts of the series, a sure sign the show was well on its way to a back-nine order.

FOX executives are touting the news as a sign that year-round programming can succeed on the broadcast networks not to mention proves that not all serialized programming fails. Nevertheless, "The O.C." faces a rocky future as the series will square off against CBS' "C.S.I." and NBC's comedies when it moves to the Thursday, 9:00/8:00c hour.

And despite rumblings the series would stay on Tuesdays this fall after the shelving of a second go around of "American Juniors," FOX topper Gail Berman made it clear that wasn't the case telling Daily Variety, "We have no plans to change our schedule at this time." She added, "We're going to review everything that happens as the fall season rolls out. We'll take it day by day."