ABC TCA 2013 – Why DWTS ratings dropped, S.H.I.E.L.D. Update

by Joe Tranchina
January 11, 2013 at 12:08 am

The Entertainment President of ABC, Paul Lee, spoke at the 2013 TCA this morning. Dancing with the Stars was a ratings let-down without bad dancers. Actually, most of Lee’s conversation with the press aside from DWTS surrounded bad ratings and failed series. What a downer after some seriously positive sentiments from rival networks at TCA 2013. Still, Joss Whedon’s highly anticipated new series S.H.I.E.L.D. and mega-hit Modern Family are seen as the network’s saving graces. Scandal is going strong. They’re also banking on Nashville to snowball into true success.

On the middling success of Nashville: The untimely demises of Last Resort and 666 Park Avenue were solidified by ABC’s decision to back Nashville instead. Apparently, Last Resort was deemed un-relatable to women. There is only so much promotion to go around, and they’re seriously banking on Nashville picking up viewers. It’s apparently a great show, so who knows?

On ABC’s Comedies: Modern Family is the obvious comedic focus. It’s ABC’s current superstar series. Lee even went as far as to show clips from an upcoming episode of the series in the middle of his talk. Jason Mantzoukas is coming to the show. Also, Lee is very proud of the network’s multi-camera comedies; The Middle and Suburgatory.

On the DWTS Debacle: An All-Stars version of Dancing with the Stars defeated the purpose many viewers had of tuning in; no one sucked! People like to watch train-wrecks. An All-Stars season drew in an older audience of people who were, I guess, looking to see genuinely good dancing? Still, ABC is keeping DWTS on twice a year. It’s not going anywhere

On Seth MacFarlane: Lee is enthusiastic in his approval of MacFarlane as host of the Academy Awards this year. “He wants to be there… He loves the show, and I think he’s going to bring a lot of that energy to it.”

On Future Series S.H.I.E.L.D.: “Marvel has the ability to bring the family together… the script’s great. I don’t want to jinx it,” said Lee. Joss Whedon’s allegedly awesome new series, surrounding Marvel Comics’ famous espionage crew, is said to see Whedon back in classic form. It looks like ABC is super focused on this show, and it will most likely get a full pickup. It could be the series that sees the recently floundering network whipped back to fighting form in the ratings game.

Here are some guys from IGN NEWS talking Whedon’s S.H.I.E.L.D.: