• by Wayne Friedman , January 12, 2010

Pasadena, Calif. -- ABC's Stephen McPherson didn't enter the fray regarding NBC's Jay Leno-Conan O'Brien controversy -- but he said there would be new marketing efforts for "Jimmy Kimmel Live," especially with regard to the network's new comedy hit shows.

At the Television Critics Association meeting here, McPherson said more could be done to connect prime-time talent booking on Kimmel.

"It's really important we tie Jimmy to ABC, to our shows," he said. "It's really nice when we have that "Dancing [with the Stars"] connection with those people going on his show. Now that we have comedy [on] Wednesday. his comedy brand could be part of that as well."

With the success of ABC's three comedies on Wednesday -- "The Middle," "Modern Family" and "Cougar Town" -- McPherson says booking more comedy talent on the late-night comedy talker "Jimmy Kimmel Live" show makes sense.

He also announced that those three shows have been renewed for a second season. ABC made the bold move a year ago to launch five new shows on the night, three of which have been successful.

ABC will also be more visible on its airwaves for "Kimmel" -- in terms of promotion. "We are going to launch a new strategic marketing plan [for "Kimmel"]," he said. "But it's not in reaction to ["Leno" and "O'Brien's" possible moves]."

While Fox and NBC may be looking to change their late-night programming efforts with decisions around O'Brien and Leno, ABC will not get involved. Before NBC made a decision to place Leno in the 10 p.m. time period, ABC expressed a desire to talk with Leno.

Now McPherson is happy where the network is: "We don't have any plans in changing our late night."

When NBC made its big late-night marketing moves, starting in the spring for O'Brien and the summer for Leno, ABC sat on the sidelines. "We chose not to get into the promotions wars when they were launching Conan and Leno," says McPherson.

On other matters, McPherson took issue with NBC Universal executive Jeff Gaspin, who said earlier in the week that "Leno" lost almost a full rating point on average versus previous NBC scripted shows -- but that CBS and ABC didn't capitalize on this, with both losing a tenth of a rating.

Not so, says McPherson: "We are up 8% to 10% at 10 p.m."

An NBC spokesman said both executives are accurate: "NBC's claim was based on all-program averages. ABC was looking at its nights of scripted programming only, so they apparently excluded Friday nights. Both sets of numbers appear to be correct -- just a different way of looking at the hour."

In regard to Simon Cowell's leaving Fox's "American Idol" and starting up another show with network, "The X Factor," McPherson doesn't think Fox will lose much.

"He's an incredibly important part of that show. It's not like he's going back to England. I'm not sure it's some giant win. I think it's just going to be a change."