Desperate? Not ABC. The network hasn't been able to buy a big hit in years. But with 'Desperate Housewives,' 'Lost' and 'Wife Swap' (see a theme here?), ABC has found a groove.

Publication: Newsweek

Publication Date: 25-OCT-04

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Byline: David J. Jefferson (With Johnnie L. Roberts)

Faced with the daunting task of resuscitating ABC, the network's new president of prime-time programming, Stephen McPherson, was understandably skittish as he pondered the list of pilot shows last spring. Staring back at him among the titles were words like "lost" and "desperate," and he could only imagine the headlines if the shows were flops. "When you sit around in development, you honestly think of the title and what the press is going to do with it,'' he says. "When I was working on 'Just Shoot Me!' at NBC, I thought, 'This is gonna be a disaster'."

Breathe easy, Mr. McPherson. The sexy suburbanites of ABC's "Desperate Housewives" are the darlings of the fall TV season, with more than 20 million viewers tuning in to each of the first two shows. And more than 18 million people are watching "Lost'' to find out which castaway will be the next meal for the mysterious monster. Those two hits have given something ABC hasn't seen in a long time: solid berths in the Nielsen top...

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