TCA: ABC Exec Session Coverage

Yes, we were all waiting and wondering: would ABC address the sudden departure of Steve McPherson. And, no, they did not. Said ABC communications head Kevin Brockman, who opened ABC Day at TCA:“I want to start out by addressing the elephant in the room. On Tuesday we issued a statement announcing Steve McPherson’s resignation from ABC Entertainment Group. I realize you all may have questions, obviously. That is what you do for a living. But to save us some time and hopefully make this as productive as possible, I just want to say that Tuesday’s statement still holds. It is literally all we are going to say on the subject. So you may ask, but you will get the same answer. We will give it again if we need to. But in the spirit of trying to make things as productive today, just realize that that’s where we are. We really have nothing more to add.”Less than 36 hours into his new role as ABC Entertainment president, former ABC Family head Paul Lee came across as calm, cool and very knowledgeable in front of the hungry members of the press.“What I’ve tried to do in my last two jobs, when I was a show-runner in broadcast in the U.K., is to create brand-defining, network-defining, ground-breaking shows,” said Lee. “Quality storytelling is what it’s all about. I feel very honored to have inherited a network that was defined by the Greys and the Desperates and the Dancings and the Modern Familys and the Losts. So I think there’s a whole load of brand equity there. I’m certainly going to spend some time over the next month or two getting into the brand and exactly how it lives and breathes. But if I do get the chance here, as we did in the last couple of jobs, to take some risks, make some great shows, have some surprises and still do it to a defined target audience, hopefully it’s going to be a lot of fun.”Spearheading the programming on ABC Family is, of course, not the in the same league as scheduling 22-hours on a broadcast network like ABC. On the differences between the two:“I think there’s no question that this is a more difficult job than running ABC Family because you have more time on cable,” noted Lee. “And that was one of the things that we used to love. Let’s stick by a show and go with it. At the same time, I do think whatever the pressures are—if you think a show is going to make it over time to try and hold it. But at the same time, we are all slaves to ratings, and sometimes there is a very small, passionate group who love a show that will never find a wider audience on a network. A lot of this sort of job is figuring out not just what you think is a good idea, but it’s almost likehorse whispering. The network talks to you. It has its own audience. Your audience comes back to you and talks. In the end, it’s about will the show over time not only grow creatively, match the network, and hopefully, have you got the patience to do that? And they’re very difficult decisions. Even on the smaller cable networks that I’ve lived on, there were shows I was passionate about that we knew would never reach enough of a rating point, and they’re tough. They’re the worst parts of this job, because you’re calling out people you love that you worked with to say, “You know what? I think it would work on Syfy.” They’re tough moments, even on cable.”Inheriting the current ABC line-up is a challenge, no doubt. Dancing With the Stars, fortunately, is in solid shape, as is returning Castle and Modern Family. But anchors Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives continue to erode, there are potential weak spots of six nights of the week (excluding Monday), and seven new series is risky. Paul Lee will, of course, need at least one full year to put his own stamp on the ABC programming brand. Regarding his philosophy on programming:“What I do know is that Kyle XY, which came out of this studio, was critical in kick-starting the ABC Family brand. I believe that Army Wives was critical in rediscovering the Lifetime brand. Criminal Minds is a show that I love. At the same time, you know, we have to focus on making sure that every year we create brand-defining hits for the mother network, which is ABC, so that’s a balance of what we’re talking about.”“The reality is we have some really defining brands over the years,” he added. “We have a strong slate coming up. We have a new strong comedy. This job is certainly about creating new, strong, smart, brand-defining hits, and so we do have our work cut out to do a lot. But everybody who sits into these jobs has to do that, and you have to do that every year because every network needs to be replenished to stay fresh and to evolve its identity.”

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TCA: ABC Exec Session Coverage

Marc Berman

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Marc Berman