ABC programming chief Stephen McPherson has abruptly resigned from the network after a six-year tenure in which the network aired such provocative series as “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost” but ended last season in third place among the big four networks.
McPherson submitted his resignation as ABC Entertainment Group president and the company accepted, the Disney-ABC Television Group said in a brief statement Tuesday. His replacement will be announced soon, according to the statement, in which McPherson was quoted as thanking the people with whom he’d worked.
Paul Lee, who as president of ABC Family boosted the cable channel’s ratings with hits including “The Secret Life of the American Teenager and “Pretty Little Liars,” was widely reported to be McPherson’s likely successor.
Before joining ABC Family in 2004, Lee was chief executive officer and founder of BBC America. He’d previously worked at the BBC in England and been a reporter, TV producer and director, according to ABC’s website.
McPherson’s departure from the top programming job at ABC comes just days before the network’s presentation of its fall schedule to a meeting of TV reporters and critics. The network is set to bring the cast and producers of new and returning shows to the Television Critics Association gathering Aug. 1 in Beverly Hills.
The fall season begins in September, with ABC’s 2010-11 schedule having been assembled by McPherson and featuring new series stars including Matthew Perry, Michael Imperioli, Michael Chiklis and Dana Delany and such offbeat shows as the mock-docmentary series “My Generation” and the comedy-drama “No Ordinary Family.”
After taking on the job in 2004, McPherson helped turn ABC around after a disastrous ratings slide caused by his predecessors’ over-reliance on multiple nights of the prime-time game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.”
He gained ground with innovative and serialized shows including “Lost,” ”Ugly Betty” and “Brothers and Sisters” in contrast with procedurals such as the “Law & Order” and “CSI” franchises favored by its rival networks. “Dancing with the Stars,” which has rivaled top-rated “American Idol,” also started airing on ABC under McPherson.
However, unlike its three chief rivals, ABC lost viewers last season as hits like “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy” started aging. There also was a failed effort to replace “Lost,” which wrapped its run last season, with the similarly mysterious “Flashforward.”
Yet the network’s biggest risk of last fall — filling Wednesday with four new comedies — was a success. Three of them are returning and one, “Modern Family,” is considered one of the freshest new shows on TV.
In a separate statement released by his publicist, McPherson said he would divide his attention for his next business efforts.
“I will be announcing my future plans shortly which will include a new entrepreneurial venture in the spirits business,” he said in the statement. “While I will continue with my ongoing wine business [a wine label called Promise], I’ll also reveal plans for my involvement in a new media company.”
Actor Gene Hackman, Wife Betsy Arakawa and Their Dog Were Dead For Some Time, Warrant Shows
Oscar-winner Gene Hackman, his wife and one of their dogs were apparently dead for some time before a maintenance worker discovered their bodies at the couple's Santa Fe home, according to investigators. Hackman, 95, was found dead Wednesday in a mudroom and his 65-year-old wife, Betsy Arakawa, was found in a bathroom next to a space heater, Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office detectives wrote in a search warrant. There was an open prescription bottle and pills scattered on a countertop near Arakawa. Denise Avila, a sheriff's office spokesperson, said there was no indication they had been shot or had any wounds. The New Mexico Gas Co. tested the gas lines in and around the home after the bodies were discovered, according to the warrant. At the time, it didn't find any signs of problems and the Fire Department found no signs of a carbon monoxide leak or poisoning. A sheriff's detective wrote that there were no obvious signs of a gas leak, but he noted that people exposed to gas leaks or carbon monoxide might not show signs of poisoning. The gruff-but-beloved Hackman was among the best actors of his generation, appearing as villains, heroes and antiheroes in dozens of dramas, comedies and action films from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s. "He was loved and admired by millions around the world for his brilliant acting career, but to us he was always just Dad and Grandpa. We will miss him sorely and are devastated by the loss," his daughters and granddaughter said in a statement Thursday. Worker found bodies of Hackman and his wife A maintenance worker reported that the home's front door was open when he arrived to do routine work on Wednesday, and he called police after finding the bodies, investigators said. He and... Read More