ABC at TCA: Steve McPherson on the End of Lost and the Drama at NBC - By Ed Martin

Te news yesterday that Conan O39Brien had thrown down the gauntlet in the mounting mess over at NBC boldly rejecting his network39s suggested plan to bump The Tonight Show to 1205 am largely eclipsed ABC39s relatively lowkey day at the Winter 2010 Television Critics Association tour Even if ABC had put together a more robust schedule it would have been difficult to compete for attention as one of the biggest stories in broadcast history continues to play out taking one surprising turn after anotherBut there were still a few breakthrough moments during ABC39s day including a press conference with the cast and creators of Lost and one of the more interesting series renewal announcements ever made at a TCA tourThe announcements came early in the day when ABC Entertainment Group President Steve McPherson revealed that freshman comedies Modern Family Cougar Town and The Middle would be picked up for a second season The launch of ABC39s Wednesday comedy night home to all three shows was one of the big television success stories of 2009quotWe39ve had a tremendous fall with our comedy Wednesday and we39re going to pick up the three shows for next season right nowquot McPherson said quotWe actually haven39t told the shows They39re finding out from your blogs right nowquotSure enough McPherson39s announcement kicked off a frenzy of twittering and liveblogging throughout the ballroom Later in the day during a panel with the showrunners from all three shows they noted that their casts and crews had learned about the renewals via tweets and texts seconds after McPherson broke the newsMuch of McPherson39s session was devoted to the impending final season of Lost a show most TCA members agree has done much to transform television quotI think it is arguably one of the most influential shows of the decade if not all timequot he said quotIt proved that you could do serialized shows that were going to be challenging to the audience that people could invest inquot Asked why so many shows that tried to replicate the specific success enjoyed by Lost have failed on ABC and elsewhere McPherson laughed quotIf I knew that I would probably not have done derivative shows myselfquotIf there is anything I would want to be known for on Lost it was making the decision to end the show before it dragged on too long standing by it and giving showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse that opportunityquot McPherson later added quotI think it respected the show it respected the viewers and it respected the television creativeLost executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton CusequotIf we start to make programming just about the business how many episodes can we squeeze out of this show it39s bad for everybodyquot he continued quotIt ends up being bad for the business as well if you39re just managing to the margins Hopefully that39s a lesson we can all takequotMcPherson was also asked about the ongoing drama over at NBC quotWhat39s great about the situation that39s transpired is it really has put the emphasis back on great creativequot he replied quotScripted shows are really a part of that landscape They39re what people expect in those time periods For the creative community it will open up some more time periods which was really I think the most tragic thing about NBC turning over its 10 pm time periods to The Jay Leno Show So from that standpoint we39re happy about the way things have gone downquotSeeing a great network tumble is not something that we rejoice overquot he continued quotWe39re all competitive but we want a vibrant landscape It39s disconcerting when things happen in our industry even to competitors We don39t take any pleasure in that We39re going to compete against them but we want it to be vibrant It39s kind of like playing for the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox decide to stop playing baseball You don39t get excitedquotThere was great disappointment among TCA members that ABC did not have the first hour of the twohour season premiere of Lost available for screening in advance of the farewell appearance by the cast and showrunners of the show Many fumed that ABC didn39t even offer a few clips Predictably the session didn39t reveal much about the episodes to come but Lost sessions never do and fans including critics wouldn39t have it any other wayquotThe season premiere picks up right after the Season 5 finalequot Cuse revealed quotWe39ve obviously been very circumspect about the sixth season primarily because there was a big cliffhanger Juliet detonated an atomic bomb seemingly destroying the island resetting the cosmic clock and ensuring that Oceanic Flight 815 would not crash amp8211 or something like that That39s why we39ve been very circumspect about what we said and why we haven39t shown any new footagequotquotAll we can do is put our best foot forwardquot Lindelof added quotWe do feel like the worst ending that we could possibly provide everyone who has invested this amount of time and energy into watching the show is the safe ending You know the ending that is basically 39What39s going to be the most appealing to the most people39quotFortunately for us we39ve been talking about how the show39s going to end since Steve gave us an end date three years ago so we really have no excuse to say anything other than this is the ending that we wanted to do on the terms that we wanted to do itquotCast members were a little more forthcomingquotThe premiere is definitely like 39What Wait Let me read that part again Whatquot said Jorge Garcia who plays HugoquotIt felt like a finale That scale Wow Okayquot added Josh Holloway who plays SawyerquotI had to read it about three times before it actually made sensequot admitted Emilie de Ravin who returns as Claire for the final season after disappearing for all of Season 5quotNot helpingquot Lindelof laughed adding quotGet ready to scratch your heads Americaquot

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ABC at TCA: Steve McPherson on the End of Lost and the Drama at NBC - By Ed Martin

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