ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson promises that the upcoming seasons of Desperate Housewives and Lost won’t disappoint. Speaking to Housewives, he said that series’ creator Marc Cherry has “taken over 100 percent of the show-running and that’s been a terrific change. The early scripts and the storylines and the arcs and the mystery, I think, are a lot stronger from the get-go next season.” I certainly hope so – season two was a major disappointment, but I hung in there in the hopes that it would improve. I stayed until the bitter end, which is more than some fans did. Here’s hoping Cherry’s involvement will keep the interesting storylines coming and character development moving along.
Lost, which has not stumbled in the least (in my opinion) on character and plot, did receive some grumbling from fans about the second season’s stop-and-start schedule. With mid-season repeats upsetting the flow, it was a frustrating wait for each new episode. McPherson says that a new scheduling plan will help – Lost begins on October 4th, then runs for six straight weeks when Day Break, a new detective drama, takes the time slot. Returning again in February, the final episodes of Lost will play uninterrupted. J.J. Abrams is also expected to increase his involvement in the series, and may even direct some episodes. Says McPherson of the scheduling, “We’ve just really listened to the audience about the repeats, and it felt like this was really the best way to run the show. It’s a very, very difficult show to produce. You know, if we could run 22 straight in the fall, we probably would. But we just can’t get the shows done in that amount of time.”