• by Wayne Friedman , January 15, 2007

PASADENA, CA -- While big-time dramas have made their mark at ABC, Stephen McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment, said to expect changes concerning the mix of comedy, dramas and procedural programming next season.

"There is so much good drama on," said McPherson, during the Television Critics Association's Winter meeting. "You are asking a lot of the audience. We'll have more stuff that is procedural programming--more closed-ended stuff."

Even in current program development, there will be more comedy versus drama projects. "The great thing is that people are taking chances. I don't think the sitcom is dead. You are going to see a 50-50 mix [comedy-to-drama, in developing shows.]"

ABC's big fall program, the reality show "Dancing with the Stars," will start up again March 19. But it will avoid competing head-to-head with Fox's "American Idol." Instead, ABC will move "Stars" to Monday night from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., then have a results show on Tuesday at 9 p.m.

"Idol" mostly runs on a Tuesday and Wednesday schedule, with its Tuesday edition starting at 8 p.m. Although there may be times in which "Stars" and "Idol" are against each other later in the season, for the most part, ABC avoids this conflict.

"We wanted people not to have to choose between "Idol" and "Dancing," said McPherson. "Our fans would have put them head to head."

"Stars" is not out of the way of competitive problems, however. It will run smack into Fox's other mid-season big hit, "24." But here McPherson doesn't believe there's an issue. "It's a different audience," he noted. "24" is an action show."

This is not to say that ABC doesn't think highly of "Stars." Insiders said ABC might have put in "Stars" head to head against "Idol." Last fall, ABC was not scared about putting in "Grey's Anatomy" at 9 p.m., directly against CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

For next season, McPherson expects ABC to act more in a CBS mode of thinking: He expects ABC to have few programming changes to its program schedule. Also for next year, McPherson hinted that he expects "Lost" to run straight through the season, with 22 new episodes and no breaks for reruns. This could happen either in the fall or in the spring.

Some recent shows that departed from ABC's prime-time schedule: "The Nine, "Daybreak" and "Six Degrees" might work their way back into prime time in the spring. A number of these episodes, which haven't been on ABC, can be seen on abc.com.

Concerning his programming philosophy, McPherson said he likes to give shows more of a chance and tries to back producers' visions. "It's been a little bit disappointing. We [as networks] pull things off the air so quickly."

Case in point: ABC's flagging "What About Brian," which remains on the schedule despite low 2.0-and-under ratings among 18-49 viewers. McPherson says he's behind the producers, and while overall ratings are low, he notes that it regularly wins a lot of female demographic viewer categories.

McPherson is also excited about the future of first-run TV on the Internet. He said some original small series are really compelling. "I could see someday giving someone $50,000 or $100,000 to develop programming."