Brace yourselves, everyone
The show that's taking Alias' time slot on ABC this fall is called "Desperate Housewives"
I found this article about it at E! Online News
"The most surprising move in new ABC Primetime Entertainment President Stephen McPherson's fall schedule, which was unveiled Monday at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York during the network's annual upfront presentation: no Alias. The butt-kickin' spy drama starring Jennifer Garner will instead stay off the air until January, when its fourth season will unspool, sans reruns.
In Alias' Sunday night time slot this fall: Desperate Housewives, a soapy drama about a suburban wife (Twin Peaks' Sheryl Lee) who kills herself, but continues to watch over the Knots Landing-ish shenanigans of her cul-de-sac neighbors. Melrose Place and General Hospital writer Charles Pratt Jr. produces the show, which also stars former Melrose baddie Marcia Cross, Lois & Clark's Teri Hatcher, Sports Night's Felicity Huffman and Eva Longoria (Dragnet and The Young and the Restless).
Housewives is part of the network's bigger strategy to depend on drama series to revive its place in the network wars. Overall, ABC will add seven new dramas to its schedule--three at midseason--plus two new comedies and two new reality series.
"Every night we ask tens of millions of Americans to invite us into their homes, and it's our responsibility to give them a reason to let us stay. I believe these programs, and this schedule, does just that," said the sound bite-ready McPherson.
Tens of millions of viewers may actually be a ratings dream for ABC, the fourth-place network that, in last week's ratings battle, for example, didn't have one show in the top 10 and finished the week averaging just 8.3 million viewers.
The network, which has yet to recover from the nose dive its ratings took in 2001 when viewers decided they'd seen one--or 12--too many installments of the overplayed Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in prime time, is not only leaning on dramas to boost its profile, but is also looking to TV veterans like Patrick Dempsey, Steven Bocho, Tim Daly and Kelly Osbourne--in a dramatic role--to lure viewers back to its lineups."
The show that's taking Alias' time slot on ABC this fall is called "Desperate Housewives"
I found this article about it at E! Online News
"The most surprising move in new ABC Primetime Entertainment President Stephen McPherson's fall schedule, which was unveiled Monday at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York during the network's annual upfront presentation: no Alias. The butt-kickin' spy drama starring Jennifer Garner will instead stay off the air until January, when its fourth season will unspool, sans reruns.
In Alias' Sunday night time slot this fall: Desperate Housewives, a soapy drama about a suburban wife (Twin Peaks' Sheryl Lee) who kills herself, but continues to watch over the Knots Landing-ish shenanigans of her cul-de-sac neighbors. Melrose Place and General Hospital writer Charles Pratt Jr. produces the show, which also stars former Melrose baddie Marcia Cross, Lois & Clark's Teri Hatcher, Sports Night's Felicity Huffman and Eva Longoria (Dragnet and The Young and the Restless).
Housewives is part of the network's bigger strategy to depend on drama series to revive its place in the network wars. Overall, ABC will add seven new dramas to its schedule--three at midseason--plus two new comedies and two new reality series.
"Every night we ask tens of millions of Americans to invite us into their homes, and it's our responsibility to give them a reason to let us stay. I believe these programs, and this schedule, does just that," said the sound bite-ready McPherson.
Tens of millions of viewers may actually be a ratings dream for ABC, the fourth-place network that, in last week's ratings battle, for example, didn't have one show in the top 10 and finished the week averaging just 8.3 million viewers.
The network, which has yet to recover from the nose dive its ratings took in 2001 when viewers decided they'd seen one--or 12--too many installments of the overplayed Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in prime time, is not only leaning on dramas to boost its profile, but is also looking to TV veterans like Patrick Dempsey, Steven Bocho, Tim Daly and Kelly Osbourne--in a dramatic role--to lure viewers back to its lineups."
