The Safe House - Expositions

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - ABC acknowledges that much of its success in February sweeps, which end Wednesday night, is due to unscripted programming like "The Bachelorette" and the "20/20" special about Michael Jackson.

Still, scripted comedies and dramas are "the bread and butter of what we have here, and really our greatest pride and joy," ABC Chairman Lloyd Braun says.

In a demonstration of that pride, Braun and ABC Entertainment President Susan Lyne announced Wednesday (Feb. 26) that the network has picked up "Alias" and all six of its Tuesday and Wednesday comedies for next season.

ABC has also ordered another season of "America's Funniest Home Videos" and a fourth edition of "The Bachelor"; the network picked up "NYPD Blue" for another year earlier in the season.

"That's 10 shows on our schedule next year, and that will form the foundation of our continuing rebuilding process," Braun says.

ABC has improved its performance among both total viewers and the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 group this season. And while lately the numbers have been driven by reality shows and sweeps stunts, Braun and Lyne believe that long-term success will be built on scripted shows.

The six comedies -- "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter," "According to Jim," "Life with Bonnie," "Less than Perfect," "My Wife and Kids" and "George Lopez" -- have delivered decent, if not spectacular, ratings and have allowed ABC to regain a foothold on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, where it had traditionally been strong. The network is also pleased that "Alias" has received a ratings bounce since its post-Super Bowl episode, drawing about a million viewers a week over its season average.

The network will continue to try out new reality series on Thursday nights for the rest of the season in an effort "to see if anything else pops" the way "The Bachelor" did last spring. "Until we come up with that big monster show that we can put in to compete on Thursday, [reality shows will] allow us to show up on that night," Braun says.

The Thursday-night hole was created by the failure of "Dinotopia" and "Push, Nevada" in the fall. Lyne says that because the network was so focused on re-establishing itself in the 8 p.m. hour, it was left wanting for dramas that could work later in the evening.

"Our drama development this year is much more targeted at nine o'clock and especially 10 o'clock, where I think we really need to develop the next generation of great ABC dramas," Lyne says.

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