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ABC Entertainment Group president Paul Lee is not going anywhere. A Variety report out of London about interest in the British-born ABC executive for the soon-to-be-vacant position of director general of the BBC got the town buzzing as the news comes while Lee and his team are deep in pilot screenings only two weeks before Lee is slated to pitch ABC’s schedule for next season to advertisers at the network’s upfront presentation. It is true that Lee is one of a number of British executives on the list of the BBC headhunters, but ABC sources stress that the overture to him was one-way, that Lee is under contract and has no intention of leaving. “He was approached because he is British, and so were others,” one source said. It would be an awkward timing for Lee to leave as he’s doing pretty well — he has been in the job for less that two years and his first development season delivered more successful new shows than any other network: Once Upon A Time, Suburgatory and Revenge are certain to be renewed, and midseason entry Don’t Trust The B— In Apt. 23 looks good too. So it looks like Jimmy Kimmel will not have to do a last-minute rewrite of his traditional roast, a highlight of ABC’s upfront.
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Good for BBC. Not so great for ABC.
Sorry, but not one of the show’s he’s put on the air consistently gets over a 3.0 rating in 18-49. Suburgatory, Revenge and Apt 23 are all just barely doing okay. And let’s not forget the Tim Allen show which has been horribly rejected by audiences. It’s now getting the same crappy ratings as that awful cross=dressing comedy he put on. The network’s biggest ratings getter remains Modern Family and long in the tooth Grey’s. Go back to England, I’m sure ABC can continue to languish without you.
How many new shows have averaged over a 3 rating this season? None. ABC easily has the best rated, critically acclaimed and most talked about new shows. Once Upon a Time, Revenge, and Suburgatory are all winners. Paul has done a terrific job and is one of the most reasonable, level-headed execs in town.
What about Once Upon a Time? That is consistently at least at a 3.0.
Revenge is doing well considering it is a 10pm show. Apt 23 and Scandal are good as well considering there late spring launch.
Forget 3.0 the norm now is 2.0 those days have come and gone, less and less of the precious 18-49 crowd is watching TV let alone watching it at specific times. That age group watching TV when THEY want to watch not when a network tells them to watch. Along with that add Hulu and ABC.com into the mix. People need to come into the 21st century the days of nelisen ratings are gradually fading.
I not even close to the precious 18-49 group and even I know that. Paul Lee has done much better than McPherson who was a disaster, concentrating too much on artsy fartsy NBC type shows which ABC audiences rejected, and don’t even bring up GA Lost or DH because it was Braun that ok’d those shows NOT McPherson.
Suburgatory has tanked lately..Paul has not put One hit show on the air..Not One…all the hits were McPhersons…Tim Allen’s show flopped..all the other comedies flopped…This is verifiable…just check the ratings…He is only made to look good by Greenblat’s absolute Failures..
Other than Modern Family name one big hit McPherson came up with, because it was Braun that came up with Lost, GA, and DH McPherson wanted to pull the plug on Lost because of the cost.
He put Once Upon A Time on the air and Revenge o he must be doing some thing right. LMS ratings were good for 19 episodes with no lead in or lead out show and up against NCIS. LMS would do better on a different night say Friday.
Lee isn’t the best, but let’s not forget that he did (I think) bring us Once Upon a Time, which is this years highest rated new drama on any network. Revenge has definitely brought better ratings to Wednesday @ 10. And Suburgatory in my opinion is a awful show, but it has held up better than Better With You did last year and year over year ratings are what matter
How is this guy doing well for ABC? A few of his shows are barely registering ratings-wise and some of these new shows he’s got in the pipeline might not even make it to series and definitely there are several shows that need to be given the heave-ho, such as GCB, Apt. 23 and others to boot. ABC would be smart to let him leave.
you do realize Once Upon a Time is the biggest hit as far as new network shows this year, right? That show was Paul Lee’s doing in terms of being willing to have ABC spend the spend to money to get the series going. I think Lee is doing a fantastic job. He brought some great shows this year. Lee has signal handedly made ABC my favorite network. I love Once Upon a Time, Revenge and Apt 23, they are all good shows. Suburgatory and Last Man Standing are not my cup of tea but they are watchable. No matter what Lee is certainly better then Greenblat and McPherson.
‘Once Upon a Time’ is a great family show. It’s one of the few network scripted series that the entire family, regardless of age, can sit down and watch together. That’s certainly a feather in Lee’s cap, because it’s an undisputed hit.
Regarding the ratings in the 18-49 demo, that inherited perception of non-value on the part of advertisers is an outdated concept that someone has GOT to challenge. Not only is it causing good programming to be cancelled, and costing talented people jobs, but it’s costing the networks a great deal of money in lost ad revenue, plus the cost of developing and launching new pilots.
Traditional media needs to embrace what their internet brethren already know: if you have someone’s attention, regardless of age, then you have the opportunity to sell them something!!!
You never see a website closing down because they’ve discovered the majority of people that traffic it are 50 and over. Oh no, they figure out what those people want and they make sure to put the appropriate ads in front of them. The ad game in broadcast is on auto-pilot and someone needs to shake things up.
Wow. Such harsh sentiments. I tend to agree with the article. Each referenced series has performed respectably and are not the failures some assert, nor is “Last Man Standing.” Have ratings slid this spring? Yes. And, in the event you hadn’t noticed, this is an across-the-board trend, save for a few exceptions.
Once Upon A Time got a 3.0 at 8pm last 2 weeks. What new drama on FOX, NBC (or even CBS) last week got a 3.0? None, in fact except for Idol and The Voice no shows on NBC or FOX got a 3.0 at all. I know you guys love to be hateful as all hell in the comments, but sorry, out of all the nets thus year ABC has the most new scripted hits. FOX has zero.