• by Wayne Friedman , February 12, 2008

A day after the WGA reached a tentative deal with producers to end their strike, ABC has sketched out its programming plans for next year.

ABC has picked up nine series for next season, including four shows that debut this year: "Dirty Sexy Money," "Private Practice," "Pushing Daisies," and "Samantha Who?" Those shows will join five mainstay and veteran ABC shows: "Brothers & Sisters," "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy," "Lost," and "Ugly Betty."

"The strength of our schedule this fall was unprecedented and speaks for itself," said Stephen McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment, in a release. "We're looking forward to building on that success."

ABC touts its strong fall performance--10 weeks of the season, Sept. 24 to Dec. 2, 2007--when the network was No. 1 among 18-49 viewers, with an average 3.9/10 rating. ABC also says it was atop all networks during the November sweeps period, for its third consecutive November sweeps win.

Analysts say ABC is looking to calm the nerves of national advertisers. The net says it will have most of its lineup ready to go in the fall--something that appeared to be in jeopardy during the almost four-month-long writers' strike.

"In this aftermath of the strike, you are going to see things like what ABC had done," says David Scardino, entertainment specialist for Santa Monica, Calif.-based media-buying agency, RPA. "ABC will still have a couple of holes, but now it'll choose from whatever development they have or reality shows," Scardino said, adding that it's a much easier job now.

Scardino says the result of a shortened season is that more on-the-fence shows will make the cut for next year. He thinks "Dirty Sexy Money" was one of those shows. "Shows will be picked up that in normal years would not be. It is like back to the future. You are now maintaining shows now that you might like, but haven't done great ratings."

During the week, writers and producers agreed to a new long-term deal that would, in year three of the deal, give writers 2% of Internet video revenues. Writers also grabbed more than double the residuals fees they had previously received for DVD sales and other off-network platforms.