ABC President Praises "Pushing Daisies"

MAY 15, 2007: ABC President Steve McPherson has praised the network's new Wednesday night series "Pushing Daisies," acknowledged problems with the "Private Practice" pilot and, responding to NBC's 30-episode "bulk-up"strategy, said ABC will not inflate episode orders at the expense of quality.

Steve McPherson has spoken with the reporters defending ABC's decision to develop 30 new pilots saying, "I think it's comical when I hear other people saying we're spending too much on television; we're not spending $600 million on football. We'll continue to spend on R&D."

ABC President also underlined that sometimes extra episodes can degrade the quality of a show. "If we could do 47 episodes of 'Desperate Housewives,' we would," he said. "I think you have to be careful not to push it too much. … There's a limited number of shows you can get done and keep the quality up."

McPherson also spoke about the new male ensemble drama "Big Shots" about a quartet of CEOs which got the coveted post-'Grey's' slot: "We've been wanting to do a male ensemble for a while with truthful male relationships, and we feel it's a great pairing with 'Grey's' on Thursday."

"LOST" will return in early 2007 and the network now believes the show works much better in an earlier timeslot at 8 or 9 p.m.

McPherson acknowledged that "Private Practice" backdoor pilot could have been better executed:

"It spent lot of time introducing the characters but not enough time with the stories," he said, something he assured would be remedied.

Finally, McPherson praised the new series "Pushing Daisies" which will be leading into "Private Practice" saying:

"The vision for this world is extraordinary," he said. "It's like nothing you ever seen on television. This is one you have to see to understand."

According to early buzz - he may be right. TV Guide has already called the show "ABC's New 'LOST'" worth obsessing about.

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