Abc Entertainment

ABC, seeking to rebuild its prime-time lineup, reportedly will schedule nine new shows in the fall, including a comedy starring Michael J. Fox, series based on the movies "Clueless" and "Dangerous Minds," and a third news magazine to go up against NBC's "ER." The network is also expected to renew a number of marginally rated first-year programs, among them "Murder One," "High Incident" and "Second Noah"--all one-hour shows that have received critical praise but attracted relatively few viewers.

Paul Lee, the executive who revived Walt Disney Co.'s moribund ABC Family channel with shows that appealed to the sensibilities of the millennial generation, was elevated Friday to president of ABC Entertainment Group. Lee immediately takes over for Steve McPherson, who abruptly stepped down this week. The 50-year-old, London-born Lee, a former BBC television executive, will oversee creative and business operations for the broadcast network as well as ABC Studios, the company's in-house TV production unit.

Jamie Tarses, a former senior NBC-TV development executive, is expected to begin serious negotiations with Walt Disney Co. this weekend about joining ABC Entertainment as president. Tarses, who until recently went by her married name Jamie McDermott, is officially released from her contract with NBC on Saturday. Sources say Ted Harbert, the current president, has been offered a new position as chairman of ABC Entertainment but may not accept the job.

Former ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson had been known in Hollywood over the last six years for his hair-trigger temper, tussles with his bosses and taking big swings to find the next ratings juggernaut to replace "Lost." Along the way, ABC spent more than $500 million producing TV pilots, buying scripts and signing deals with writers and producers to create new shows. Yet despite numerous splashy prospects — including "Dirty Sexy Money," "Flash Forward," "V" and "Pushing Daisies" — McPherson never hit one out of the park.

Rob Dwek will become the No. 2 executive at ABC Entertainment, reporting to President Jamie Tarses, the network confirmed. Dwek, 32, is expected to join ABC in April. The executive has spent 2 1/2 years at Kushner-Locke, an independent company known mainly for producing TV movies.

In the latest shake-up at ABC, Michael Rosenfeld resigned late Monday as senior vice president of the entertainment group after less than a year on the job, according to sources close to the firm. ABC would not comment and Rosenfeld did not return calls. But sources say Rosenfeld resigned from the third-ranking position in the group because of friction with his new boss, Jamie Tarses, who became president of ABC Entertainment in June after holding a top programming position at NBC Entertainment.

In a move that caught the television industry by surprise, Brandon Stoddard resigned Tuesday as president of ABC Entertainment, saying "it's just no fun anymore." Always the reluctant administrator since taking over the top programming position on Nov. 12, 1985, Stoddard will stay on until his successor is named "in a couple of days."

ABC split its entertainment division in two Thursday and named CBS executive Michael Brockman to the newly created position of president of daytime, children's and late-night entertainment. At CBS and NBC, and heretofore at ABC, those programming areas have been contained within the same entertainment division that was responsible for prime-time programming.

Jamie Tarses' three-year run as president of ABC Entertainment--which began tumultuously and seemed to seldom stray from that course--has come to an equally messy conclusion, with the 35-year-old executive resigning Thursday, just days after the network denied the latest report she would be forced out. As the first woman to head a network entertainment division, and one of the youngest executives to do so when chosen at age 32, Tarses has been closely scrutinized during her tenure.

Few Hollywood executives enjoy the kind of good luck Steve McPherson has seen over the past year, but ABC's entertainment czar doesn't sound ready to take a victory lap just yet. When he was hired in April 2004 to oversee ABC's prime-time lineup, the network was mired in fourth place. But last season the dramas "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" -- both developed by McPherson's predecessors -- turned into major hits.

Walt Disney Co. is poised to elevate an executive who began his career as a reporter covering the strife in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as the new president of ABC Entertainment. Now, Paul Lee will venture into another divided landscape to pick up the pieces after ABC's short-fused president, Steve McPherson, abruptly resigned this week. Lee was on vacation Wednesday and not available for comment. Disney executives were uncertain whether his new employment agreement would be completed by Sunday, when McPherson was supposed to take the stage in Beverly Hills to tout ABC's new fall shows to more than 200 reporters.

Driven by a need to overhaul its program development process and cut costs, Walt Disney Co.'s ABC has finalized a complex consolidation of its ABC Entertainment and ABC Studios operations. The restructuring and creation of the ABC Entertainment Group, announced in January but completed only Thursday, will combine many of the business and creative functions of the two units.

Walt Disney Co. has signed its hard-charging top television programmer to a new contract. Steve McPherson, 43, ABC's entertainment president, has been the chief architect of the network's ratings revival, developing such shows as "Grey's Anatomy," "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" and greenlighting other favorites, including "Dancing With the Stars" and "Brothers & Sisters." He stepped into the job four years ago when ABC's previous regime was tossed out after several seasons of fourth-place finishes and steep financial losses.

The Federal Communications Commission said Friday that it planned to fine Walt Disney Co.'s ABC network $1.4 million for airing an episode of "NYPD Blue" in 2003 that showed a woman's nude buttocks. The company said it opposed the fine and planned to appeal. The FCC said it was seeking $27,500 for each of 52 stations in the Central and Mountain time zones that aired the scene in the 9 to 10 p.m. time slot in violation of federal restrictions against broadcasting "obscene material" between 6 a.m.

Is half of "Lost" better than nothing? ABC and its producers are hoping so. The network released its strike-affected midseason schedule Friday and, in a surprise move, said that beginning Jan. 31 it would put the island mystery in the Thursday night time slot vacated by "Grey's Anatomy," which is running out of fresh episodes.

ABC heads into the 59th Prime-Time Emmy Awards on Sunday leading the network pack in nominations with 70 -- though just barely; NBC logged in with 69. Still, it's good to finish atop the network heap especially with multiple nods in prestigious categories like outstanding drama ("Boston Legal" and "Grey's Anatomy") and comedy ("Ugly Betty"). We talked with ABC President of Entertainment Stephen McPherson about the upcoming television awards and the fall season ahead.

It is a little after 8 a.m. Monday, and an aide hands Robert Iger, the president of ABC Entertainment, the overnight TV ratings for 23 major markets. This is the daily report card and lottery all rolled into one for network executives--the measure of their worth and instincts. It's the real payoff for as long as they can take the pressure. Iger, 38, studies the numbers carefully. He is delighted. One of ABC's new series, "America's Funniest Home Videos," has done well again.

Rob Dwek, who joined ABC Entertainment as executive vice president in April, is negotiating to leave the network. Dwek, 32, was hired as a second-in-command to ABC Entertainment President Jamie Tarses, but ABC subsequently installed Stu Bloomberg as chairman of the division over Tarses, changing the division's structure. Prior to ABC, Dwek worked at Kushner-Locke, an independent production company.

Stephen McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment, has decided to waltz around the competition this time. The network president, often lauded for his bold and successful move to pit ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" against CBS powerhouse "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," announced Sunday that he will program his surprise reality hit "Dancing With the Stars" around the most popular show on television, Fox's "American Idol."

For the first time in 36 years, "Monday Night Football" won't be in ABC's starting lineup for the official kickoff of the new television season tonight. But the network's parent company's game plan could soon look like third and long. By dispatching the venerable weekly football event to its ESPN cable sports channel, Walt Disney Co. has exacerbated ABC's existing programming challenges, according to several advertisers.