ABC Family Spins Gold in Dramas

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/bu....html?src=dayp

By BROOKS BARNES
Published: March 6, 2011

ABC Family, the Walt Disney Company’s cable channel aimed at older teenagers and young adults, plans to announce on Monday that it will add a third night of original programming each week. The channel will also start introducing original series year-round; until now it has almost exclusively introduced new programs in June.

To help stock its expanding schedule, ABC Family has ordered three new scripted dramas, including “The Nine Lives of Chloe King,” about a girl who discovers she has special powers and is being hunted by an assassin. (Dan Berendsen, the force behind “Hannah Montana: The Movie” and several hit Disney Channel movies, is an executive producer.) A fourth new show will be a half-hour comedy starring Raven-Symoné of “That’s So Raven” fame.

“We now have some beachfront television property in shows like ‘Pretty Little Liars,’ but there is so much more opportunity,” Mr. Riley said. “I’m focused on one thing, which is how are we keeping our foot on the accelerator.”

The recent success of ABC Family has been nothing short of stunning. When Disney bought the channel in 2001 for a hefty $5.3 billion from the News Corporation and the media investor Haim Saban, it planned to show reruns from its broadcast network, ABC. But ratings plummeted without fresh programming.

With the arrival in 2010 of “Pretty Little Liars,” a mystery centered on four best friends that became an immediate ratings success, ABC Family became a bona fide smash itself. It is now one of cable’s top 10 networks among adults 18 to 49.

ABC Family attracted an average of 580,000 viewers ages 12 to 34, its target demographic, in prime time 2010, a 49 percent increase from 2005. The channel’s primary competitor, the CW, has struggled to find new hits during this time — it passed on “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” — and is seeking a new president.

“ABC Family has been riding a train of increasing success,” said Kris Magel, a senior vice president at Initiative, a media-buying agency. “Advertisers value this channel. It delivers all the buzz and great ratings, with limited controversy.”

Because of the long gestation period for television shows, Mr. Riley has only begun to make his presence felt at ABC Family; all of the new series, for instance, were already in development at the channel when he arrived. He also has a strong lieutenant in Kate Juergens, executive vice president for original series programming and development.

But Mr. Riley was deeply involved with the casting and scheduling of the new shows and will start wooing advertisers this week in New York. In addition to “The Nine Lives of Chloe King,” the new dramas Mr. Riley will be promoting this week include “Switched at Birth,” the story of two teenage girls who were mixed up as newborns. “The Lying Game,” meantime, is a mystery about twin sisters.

The goal for “The Great State of Georgia,” in which Raven-Symoné stars as an aspiring actress with a larger-than-life personality, is to create a comedy block on Wednesday nights. It will be paired with “Melissa & Joey,” a successful returning series starring Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence.

“We love the authenticity of all of these shows, all of which have our hallmarks of heart, humor and optimism,” Mr. Riley said.

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We've got more on the scheduling on these here:

http://blog.sitcomsonline.com/2011/0...bc-family.html