THEY'RE ALL COMING BACK
'The Jeff Probst Show' Has Been Canceled
ABC pres admits there were too many serials - TCA Report
by Joel Keller, posted Jan 15th 2007 10:35AM
The first session of yesterday's ABC presentation started bright and early at 9 AM with a Q&A with network president Steve McPherson. He was cheekily introduced with a video showing the rehearsals of a "new cast member" of Dancing with the Stars. It turned out to be McPherson, at a scene that looked like it came from either a previous press tour or an upfront presentation. Everyone laughed but me, mainly because I wasn't grizzled enough of a TV veteran to get the inside joke.Anyway, some of the information he gave at the Q&A after the jump.
- The Nine and Day Break were big disappointments, but they wouldn't have done anything differently.
- It's likely that they'll go back to more "procedural" shows next year -- think Grey's Anatomy, not CSI -- because there were just too many serialized shows this year. "How much stuff with that kind of commitment can an audience make? You're asking a lot of an audience," he said.
- The Nine is done shooting, but Six Degrees is not. Though they're still only on the hook for 13 episodes, they took a break to creatively retool. They also added one cast member, which he revealed over lunch to be Josh Charles (Sports Night).
- All 13 episodes of Day Break will be on ABC.com by the end of February.
- When asked about Lost's split season, he responded: "Ideally the way you'd do Lost is 22 straight episodes. We really needed to have that installment in the fall. Coming into next fall there's a good chance we'd run it 22 straight." Little did he know that the creators would drop a bomblet an hour later.
- He spoke about a couple of upcoming series that were introduced at last year's upfronts: October Road and Traveler. Traveler had a serial aspect to it -- two guys are accused of being terrorists and they spend the season clearing their name -- but October Road was more traditional.
- When I asked McPherson if The Nine should have been made as a limited series, his response was typical execuspeak: "I love limited series, but it is an opportunity cost." He cited the cost of actors, directors, development, etc. "I think as we get a strength of schedule there are opportunities where something like The Nine could have a beginning, middle and end."
- He praised Jimmy Kimmel to the hilt and said he'd be part of the network "for a long time."
- When a critic asked somewhat cynically, "Boston Legal - is there an end in sight?" McPherson praised the writing and the storylines, generating a big laugh when he said, "I mean, 'That midget I'm dating is my daughter.' That's good television right there."
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