ABC adding new series, game show

ABC announced Tuesday it will add only one new scripted series in the fall, plus a new game show, in a schedule that network executives admit was severely affected by the writers’ strike.

The new David E. Kelley- produced drama “Life on Mars” is about a police detective transported back to 1973. ABC gave it a plum Thursday time slot following “Grey’s Anatomy.”

The second new series, “Opportunity Knocks,” produced by Ashton Kutcher (“Punk’d”), is a game where producers show up at a home with a truckload of prizes and quiz family members on what they know about each other.

ABC is also picking up the canceled NBC comedy “Scrubs” for midseason.

All of the major broadcast networks are presenting their schedules to advertisers this week except for NBC, which announced its plans last month.

ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson has been bold in the past in bringing forward new shows: the network had eight last fall. But the 100-day strike that concluded in February impaired development.

ABC has 17 series in development for midseason or beyond, but McPherson said he wasn’t comfortable committing to new series unless pilots had been filmed.

The result is another chance for shows that in normal years may not have gotten one, such as “Eli Stone,” “Pushing Daisies” and “Dirty Sexy Money.”

Some longer-running series considered on the bubble, “Boston Legal” and “According to Jim,” were kept in production. “Boston Legal” will move to Mondays in the fall.

“Notes From the Underbelly,” “Men in Trees,” “October Road” and “Women’s Murder Club” were left off ABC’s schedule. “Lost” will return in midseason.

Kutcher’s production company also is behind an untitled beauty pageant picked up for midseason. ABC also gave a midseason go-ahead to a Mike Judge animated series, “The Goode Family,” about people obsessed with doing the right thing.

Like its rivals, ABC has suffered a decline in ratings this season. Its executives were encouraged, however, that the network won among the coveted 18- to 49-year-old demographic for seven of 10 weeks last fall before being buried by the strike and Fox’s “American Idol.”