The mysteries that surround the CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" extend to co-creator Craig Thomas' office on the Fox studio lot.
A white board on the wall that outlines the seventh season's episodes ends with Barney's wedding in the May finale. "——— is the bride," the board says.
You never know who's going to walk in, and Thomas and partner Carter Bays hold tight to their secrets. That will be a pivotal episode: The ultimate bachelor will come off the market, and it's also the day Ted meets his future bride — the mother who is the conceit upon which the entire show is built.
But that doesn't necessarily mean viewers will meet the mother in that episode. Stay tuned.
This has been a big year for the comedy that begins CBS' Monday nights. Ratings are the best they've ever been, up 19 percent over last season, and it has the youngest average audience on the network's prime-time schedule.
"There's almost no scientific explanation, and we couldn't have counted on that," Thomas said.
Time might make viewers more invested in the lives of Ted (Josh Radnor), horn-dog buddy Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), Ted and Barney's ex Robin (Cobie Smulders) and the married couple Marshall and Lily (Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan).
Another likely contributor is syndication making more people familiar with the series. "How I Met Your Mother," which just filmed its 150th episode, has been seen outside prime time on local broadcast stations for the past few years. Last year, it also was on Lifetime, the cable network targeted at women, and this fall added FX, which is popular with young men.
The FX showings started with a Labor Day marathon and an ad campaign that pictured the cast and suggested: "Isn't it time you made some new friends?" "How I Met Your Mother" hit the syndication market when there was a relative paucity of new comedies and "Friends" reruns were getting tired from overuse.
"How I Met Your Mother" is the closest TV has to a modern-day "Friends." It started, in 2005, when networks were desperate to replace that beloved NBC series, and the namesake gimmick distinguished it from other wannabes.
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