For instance, compared to ABC's other sitcom (still in production at the moment) giant, Modern Family? I mean from what I can tell and what I've gathered, stations (more than often, CW affiliates) tried to run it in prime access and good hours early on but the ratings just didn't catch on. Eventually, a lot of stations dumped it to overnight, some even past 2AM.

My affiliate still airs The Middle at 7:30PM. And cable stations seem to like it, Hallmark airs 2 hours of it in primetime on weeknights and it has afternoon blocks on Freeform that are better times than their other syndicated shows. Meanwhile I have heard Modern Family was a big disappointment on USA, they have banished it to Friday nights.

The local station here aired two episodes at 5 and 5:30, but cut it back to 1, with the 2nd half hour being Last Man Standing. This is on channel 4.2, meaning it's not on the "main" channel (nor are Modern Family or Two and A Half Men).

I agree, it's doing well on cable, particularly on Hallmark channel.

Update: channel 4.2 has cancelled it for the fall.

I saw on the Broadcast Syndication Wiki (https://broadcastsyndication.fandom.com/wiki/The_Middle) on Fandom that The Middle had disappeared from broadcast syndication altogether in 2017. Why, if The Middle had one more season to go in its original run on ABC at that time?