Thoughts From the ABC Conference Call...

So since I got up at the crack of dawn to participate, I figured I should say something about the ABC schedule presentation conference call.

But honestly there wasn’t much to say and since they were just piping audio from a press conference over the phone, there was a lot of times I didn’t know what was going on or what was being said.

I guess I just wanted to hear the voice of my TV enemy, ABC President Steve McPherson. And I was surprised to find him to be charming and good-natured—much more charming than FOX’s Kevin Reilly was to reporters yesterday.

But if you think a couple of good jokes at a press conference is going to change my mind about him, you’re mistaken—especially since he cancelled “Cupid,” which I was just starting to fall for.

Here is some of what McPherson had to say about ABC’s schedule…

On Leno moving to 10 p.m. on NBC: “The Leno move opens up a lot of opportunities.” McPherson especially pointed out Tuesdays at 10 p.m. as a real opportunity since “Law & Order: SVU” is moving to 9. ABC has scheduled Jerry Bruckheimer’s “The Forgotten” for that slot. “Leno’s a different audience, an older audience. We’ll just wait and see.”

On the return of “Scrubs”: Zach Braff will be back for at least six episodes, but they probably won’t be the first six. Executive Producer Bill Lawrence has two ideas on what to do with the show—a complete rethink or following the new generation.

On the new Thursday lineup: “There is no better Thursday lineup on TV.”

On “Grey’s Anatomy”: “People jumped the gun on the Izzie stuff.”

On why Shonda Rhimes’ new pilot was not picked up: “It needs some work. We’ll go back and look at it after summer. We decided to take our time and not rush it.”

On “Surviving Suburbia”: “We’ll see how it does during the summer.”