Trae Patton/NBCScrubs lives. As does just about every ABC show.
Yes, ABC show.
As E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos reported yesterday, the long-running NBC comedy, jettisoned by that network earlier this year, will be picked up by ABC, with Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke and cast intact.
The move was formally announced today as ABC unveiled a new fall schedule that looked a lot like last fall's schedule.
Eli Stone was the rare addition, with the Jonny Lee Miller drama earning a slot after a midseason launch this year.
For Boston Legal, the good news is that the Emmy-winner won a fifth season. The bad news is ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson confirmed to reporters that the season would be the quirky legal show's last.
Another notable pickup: According to Jim, surviving the death of the sitcom, and the dearth of a regular time slot to see an eighth season. Like Scrubs, and the returning Lost, the Jim Belushi comedy will air sometime midseason.
In all, the fall will see the launch of only two new shows: the Ashton Kutcher-executive produced game-reality hybrid Opportunity Knocks and Life on Mars, ABC's take on a BBC series about a modern-day police detective who suddenly finds himself in 1973.
ABC also announced two brand-new midseason shows: The Goode Family, an animated series from King of the Hill's Mike Judge, and an untitled, offbeat beauty pageant competition hatched by Tyra Banks and the ever-busy Kutcher.
Fewer than half a dozen fall shows from last year failed to receive invites to 2008-09. The casualties: Carpoolers, Big Shots, Women's Murder Club, Men in Trees and the late, arguably not-so-great Cavemen.
Midseason shows that didn't make the cut include Cashmere Mafia and October Road. Oprah's Big Give also won't be back, but McPherson called that an Oprah call.
Overall, McPherson termed the slate an "incredibly stable schedule—a schedule that dominated in the fall. We were winning until the strike."
Not to mention the return of Fox's American Idol, which actually wasn't mentioned.
Scheduling-wise, there were no great time-slot shifts. About the biggest innovation was awarding steady reality performers Wife Swap and Supernanny fall slots, and letting them make up the all-new "TGIF" on Fridays.
McPherson called Scrubs "a great addition," defending the ABC Studios-produced show's lower-than-Big Shots ratings by saying the comedy had journeyed through 17 different time slots during its tenure on NBC.
Here's a night-by-night look at ABC's 2008-09 fall lineup:
Sunday: America's Funniest Home Videos, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters
Monday: Dancing With the Stars, Samantha Who?, Boston Legal
Tuesday: Opportunity Knocks, Dancing With the Stars, Eli Stone
Wednesday: Pushing Daisies, Private Practice, Dirty Sexy Money
Thursday: Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, Life on Mars
Friday: Wife Swap, Supernanny, 20/20
Saturday: Saturday Night College Football
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