Nathan Fillion is Richard Castle

BUILDING A CASTLE: ABC wants you to believe in Richard Castle.

Taking a few steps beyond the established realm of fictional TV, ABC has given one of its fictional characters a real career. And the thing is, apparently he's pretty good at it.

ABC's hit detective show "Castle" stars Nathan Fillion as Richard Castle, a successful mystery author who makes the jump into real-life crime solving with the help of a New York police officer named Kate Beckett.

In the first season of the show, he was using Beckett as inspiration for a character he was creating named Nikki Heat. But during the off-season, things got weird when actual publisher Hyperion Books actually released the novel the character was working on, "Heat Wave." It was a real-world hit, spending months atop the New York Times bestsellers list.

Enough of a hit that Hyperion is going ahead with another book, again due out a few weeks before the show's season premiere (it's going into its third season this fall).

If the sequel sees even part of the sales of the first book it will be a success. ABC reports that the book has gone back to press eight times to keep up with demand, and now has more than 170,000 copies on the shelves. Currently available only in hardcover, it will go into paperback in August, shortly before the release of the sequel.

The publisher is apparently more than happy to carry on the fiction, posting an author's bio on its site that jives with the show's backstory.

The true author of the books is a closely held secret, but there are clues in the aforementioned fictional bio. It says Castle won the Nom de Plume Society's Tom Straw Award; "nom de plume" is the term for a fake name used by authors, and Tom Straw is the name of an established Hollywood screenwriter who has also published a mystery novel of his own.

'FEUD' FUNNYMAN: It's a fight that's gone on for 34 years. Five different mediators have come and gone and it still rages on.

Now it's Steve Harvey's chance to referee the "Family Feud."

The much-loved game show just announced that the standup comic and radio host will take over hosting duties from the departing John O'Hurley.

Harvey's proven himself as a renaissance man, writing and acting in sitcoms, producing a few different shows as well as doing voice and acting work on the big screen.

But it's his own persona, first on the comedy stage but later on radio, that's made him a star. And the suits at "Family Feud" producer FremantleMedia are pretty sure that'll carry over to his hosting work.

"We're thrilled to have him join our 'family' and look forward to him bringing his one-of-a-kind comedic style and personality to this beloved and legendary game-show format," said Fremantle CEO Cecile Frot-Coutaz.

It's worth mentioning that "Family Feud" has a revolving door on its staff entrance. The show has had six hosts over its three incarnations (it's been cancelled twice already, but keeps coming back), three of whom have been standup comics.

The first and longest-standing host wasn't one, though. Richard Dawson was an actor best known for a role on "Hogan's Heroes" when he landed the gig. After him, the job went to comedian Ray Combs. Another comic, Louie Anderson, followed, then came "Home Improvement" star Richard Karn and finally O'Hurley.

MANHUNTING MILESTONE: The stats attached to Fox's tent-pole, Saturday night series "America's Most Wanted" are staggering, but the show hits its biggest one on Saturday, March 6.

That's the night John Walsh hosts the 1,000th episode of his crime-fighting hit.

The simple-concept series has Fox and Walsh expanding upon the concept of the FBI's notorious most-wanted list, bringing viewers tales of real-life crimes and a plea for help on behalf of the nation's law-enforcement agencies.

Walsh, the show's co-founder, producer and host, was spurred to action after his own son was kidnapped and murdered.

"Since the very first broadcast of 'America's Most Wanted,' we've been telling people that they can make a difference just by making a simple phone call," he said. "Reaching 1,000 episodes, capturing 1,100 fugitives and recovering more than 40 missing children are incredible milestones for me and the show, and I'm extremely proud of what we've accomplished."

Premiering in the network's earliest days back in 1988, "America's Most Wanted" was actually Fox's first real hit, predating even its more-talked-about hit "The Simpsons," which premiered the following year.