ABC chief Steve McPherson talks to Broadcasting & Cable about the performance of the Alphabet network’s shows, including his thoughts on FlashForward.
Continue past the break to read the FlashForward-related excerpts.
How are you feeling about FlashForward and V?
They didn’t feel like big gambles because we are established in the drama world. But they were high-concept, we had a lot riding on them. I think the challenge with those shows is, where do we go over time with them? And I think we were really happy to see V kind of build in its run. FlashForward, we were a little concerned when we saw the numbers kind of tick off. We’ll continue to be challenged to build those shows as well as Wednesday night.
Let’s talk about development a little bit. You picked up a couple of comedies and a cop drama pilot set in Detroit. What are your priorities, what are you looking for?In the drama world, we’re always looking for our version of procedurals, the Grey’s Anatomys of the world, Private Practice, Boston Legal, those kind of character-driven procedurals. That cop show, for example, is a character-driven procedural.
We also think that in the comedy world, we’ve got to have as much ammunition as we can for Wednesday night. So we’ll look at those three shows and look at compatible pairings-voices that we get excited about, talent we get excited about that can fit into that lineup. That’s going to be a big driving force on that front.
We’re always going to look for the out of-the-box, the Vs of the world, whether it’s bringing back that or FlashForward, which was just out of the blue, a new take on something. We’re always going to feel like we’ve succeeded by taking chances. We’ve never really succeeded when we had to retreat or we try to do something that’s indicating something else; it just falls flat on its face. We’re not able to do that sort of material and succeed.
Do you feel a pressure or need to directly replace certain big franchises? In other words, does FlashForward have to carry the particular brand of torch that is Lost?No, because I think a network is a very fluid beast. I don’t think you’re looking to refill pieces. Look, Monday Night Football goes away, [and] you’re not looking to have some program that carries three hours of programming only in the fall. We had to look at that night in a completely different way. Lost is a show that is iconic and is so different from anything that’s been on, and so different than anything that will be on that it would be a mistake to try to go and do another Lost quote-unquote.
So we’re just looking for those next big opportunities. And comedy now becomes a bigger target for us, whereas before we were trying to get our foot in the door. Now it’s about building it.
We have to see where V and FlashForward are at the end of this year. Did they become a combo? Are we doing a night that’s become more of that male-oriented stuff? We’ll have to react accordingly, but I don’t think we’ll be conservative just because we were a little more aggressive in the fall. I think we’re always going to be pretty aggressive, though I think people always get on me, you’re doing too much development, you’re taking too many chances. But it’s worked well so far.
Entire interview here.
