ABC’s fall schedule

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Early Tuesday morning, Stephen McPherson, the entertainment president of ABC, unveiled the network’s new schedule to bleary-eyed reporters. After several years of rebuilding the schedule, which resulted in successes such as ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ ‘Desperate Housewives,’ ‘Lost,’ ‘Ugly Betty’ and ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ ABC’s emphasis going into this new season appears to be stability. McPherson said he felt the network had finally found crime procedurals -- three, in fact, ‘Pushing Daisies,’ ‘Women’s Murder Club’ and the midseason ‘Eli Stone’ -- that can work within the colorful, female-skewing ABC brand.

Here’s ABC’s schedule for fall:

Monday:
8 -- ‘Dancing With the Stars’
9:30 -- ‘Sam I Am’ (new show)
10 -- ‘The Bachelor’

Tuesday:
8 -- ‘Cavemen’ (new show)
8:30 -- ‘Carpoolers’
9 -- ‘Dancing With the Stars’ results (midseason: ‘Cashmere Mafia’ -- new show)
10 -- ‘Boston Legal’

Wednesday:
8 -- ‘Pushing Daisies’ (new show)
9 -- ‘Private Practice’ (new show)
10 -- ‘Dirty Sexy Money’ (new show)

Thursday:
8 -- ‘Ugly Betty’
9 -- ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
10 -- ‘Big Shots’ (new show)

Friday:
8 -- ‘Men in Trees’
9 -- ‘Women’s Murder Club’ (new show)
10 -- ‘20/20’

Saturday:
8 -- college football

Sunday:
7 -- ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’
8 -- ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’
9 -- ‘Desperate Housewives’
10 -- ‘Brothers and Sisters’

More news about ABC, of particular interest for ‘Lost’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ fans, after the jump.

-- ‘Lost,’ which will come back midseason for its 16-episode season -- the first of three -- will probably return to Wednesdays. McPherson said he thinks that ‘Lost,’ currently on at 10 p.m. so it could steer clear of the ‘American Idol’ train, is ‘a better 9 or 8 o’clock show.’ As far as setting an end date for the show 48 episodes and three season from now, McPherson said, ‘I like the ‘Lost’ model. It’s a little more of the British model.’

-- McPherson seemed to acknowledge the somewhat tepid critical and fan response to ‘Private Practice,’ the ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ spinoff starring Kate Walsh, which made its debut folded within a ‘Grey’s’ episode on May 3. He said, ‘We all feel there’s some work to do and are excited about that.’ When asked for more details, he said that the pilot had to introduce all of the characters, and needs to ‘get to the story’ when it becomes its own show.

-- McPherson confirmed that he would have loved to been able to get ‘Scrubs’ from NBC if that network had canceled the comedy. ‘I was bummed,’ he said. ‘But I’m happy it’s going another year.’

-- Kate Aurthur