If you're one of the fortunate few who make it big in the television biz, shouldn't you take the opportunity to use that cushy cushion you have built for yourself and take a big risk on something exciting and new? Not if you're one of these big television producers.

Big shots like Shawn Ryan, David E. Kelley, and Shonda Rhimes all have pilots in the can that don't seem to stray much farther from the shows that made them the big shots that they are today.

For instance, Ryan, creator of the groundbreaking FX cop drama 'The Shield,' has another cop drama premiering with Fox called 'Ridealong.' Kelley, the writer/producer behind 'The Practice' and 'Boston Legal,' has created a reality drama for NBC called 'Kindred.' Even Rhimes, the woman behind ABC's 'Grey's Anatomy,' has another medical drama show for ABC called 'Off the Map.' Is ABC looking to create an all-medical soap opera cable channel in the coming year?

Autumn may not look the same way it usually does on ABC in 2008. The network is seriously considering opening the new season sans new drama series. There will still be returning shows, including the dramas from 2007 which have been deemed successes by the ABC brass, including Pushing Daisies, Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money -- but no new pilots.

Well, not the real Seven of Nine from Star Trek: Voyager, because that would be just silly. I mean, do you know the financial costs of traveling back in time from the 24th century? They're astronomical! Plus, if she manipulates the time stream we could all be living under the iron thumb of . . . gulp . . . Canada!

No, I'm talking about Jeri Ryan, who appeared as Seven of Nine, and recently worked with David E. Kelley, creator of ABC's Boston Legal, on the FOX series Boston Public. Ryan will be appearing in the two-hour season finale of Boston Legal that will air on May 16th. She will appear as host of a fictional reality series who is charged with attempted murder after shooting at a member of the paparazzi that was stalking her.