ABC announced its new fall schedule Tuesday in New York. And the network has made life easier for the folks that compile TV listing and for viewers. The key word: Stability.

Their 2008-2009 schedule looks pretty much like last year’s schedule with only two new shows with a lot of favorites returning to the same slot and with some favorites moving. The three-month writers’ strike disrupted the season and many shows never got a chance to take hold. So some will return. ABC is giving another shot to “Dirty Sexy Money,” “Eli Stone,” “Private Practice,” “Pushing Daisies” and “Samantha Who?” And, I agree. All have potential. Last year’s strike-shortened season didn’t really give them a chance to build.

However, there was time to judge shows like “Miss Guided,” “Women’s Murder Club,” “Big Shots,” “Carpoolers,” “Men in Trees,” “Cashmere Mafia” and “Cavemen” And they’re gone. I have mixed feelings about some. Not about “Cavemen”. I’m not sure how anyone could read the treatment, look at the concept and the pilot and give it the ”’green light”. But they did.  And, other shows like “Notes From The Underbelly” and “October Road” that have been hanging around for a while look like they’re going away.

ABC’s new series for fall are a BBC adaptation and a front-yard game show executive produced by Ashton Kutcher.

The BBC adaptation is a David E. Kelley( “Boston Legal” , “Ally McBeal”)-produced drama. “Life on Mars” is about a current-day police detective transported back in time to the early 1970s. ABC gave it the plum Thursday time slot following “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Kutcher’s show, “Opportunity Knocks,” 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.

New midseason series include the NBC defector “Scrubs,” an animated comedy from “King of the Hill” creator Mike Judge entitled “The Goode Family” and an untitled unscripted series collaboration by executive producers Kutcher and Tyra Banks. ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson, who has feuded with his NBC counterpart Ben Silverman, noted during Tuesday’s “upfront” presentation that the comedy had 17 different time slots at NBC and received little promotion.

Also back at midseason: “Lost,” “The Bachelor” and, “According to Jim.” (that show cannot be killed).

Here’s the ABC Fall 2008 Prime Time Schedule

Sunday
7 p.m. “America’s Funniest Home Videos”
8 p.m. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”
9 p.m. “Desperate Housewives”
10 p.m. “Brothers & Sisters”

Monday
7 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars”
8:30 p.m. “Samantha Who?”
9 p.m. “Boston Legal”

Tuesday
8 p.m. “OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS”
9 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars Results”
10 p.m. “Eli Stone”

Wednesday
7 p.m. “Pushing Daisies”
8 p.m. “Private Practice”
9 p.m. “Dirty Sexy Money”

Thursday
8 p.m. “Ugly Betty”
9 p.m. “Grey’s Anatomy”
10 p.m. “LIFE ON MARS”

Friday
8 p.m. “Wife Swap”
9 p.m. “Supernanny”
10 p.m. “20/20″

Saturday
8 p.m. “Saturday Night College Football”

All in all, I think ABC’s going to have a good year. Stablity will play well as the other networks rework their schedules.

The strike by the Writers Guild of America is over and network television executives are working furiously to get fresh episodes on the air. In hard fought negotiations like these, the outcome is always characterized as “win-win”.

But the writers may have inadvertently given the studios more than they meant to. During the course of strike’s100 days, ideas about the network TV business shifted in subtle ways. With time to think out the issues, the network toppers also had time to think about the changing business. And time to plan.

The economics of the network TV business have been broken for years. Executives are hoping now to capitalize on the chaos of the strike by doing away with some of the arcane conventions of television production that have persisted, against reason, for decades.

First up is a review of the traditional TV-season structure, which seems outmoded in the “500 channel universe” of channel-surfing and time-shifting viewers. Executives say they plan to abandon the practice of premiering programs in the fall, instead spreading them year-round.

The whole subject of reruns is being re-evaluated. Networks are considering adding more same-week repeats into prime time.

And they are hoping to maintain some of the cost-cutting benefits of the strike, such as ending costly studio deals through the use of force majeure clauses. Also getting scrutiny is the expense of making pilots for dramas, which often cost three times the budget of an ordinary episode.

ABC expects to air four to six new episodes each of its slate of hit dramas, including “Desperate Housewives,” “Brothers and Sisters,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” and “Ugly Betty” by the end of May. There are nine episodes yet to air of the midseason drama “Eli Stone.”

But one long tradition, the May “upfronts” when shows are unveiled for advertisers at lavish presentations, will go on as planned. There was talk about dumping them. NBC floated plans to dial down the pricey ritual, but no other network has followed suit. ABC hasn’t made an announcement, I’m sure they’ll follow suit.

The networks owe the writers a debt of gratitude. If they hadn’t walked out, the networks wouldn’t have had time to think. I’m not sure that’s what the writers wanted. But that’s what they got.

As the writers’ strike wears on, nearing the six-week mark, the networks are firming up their plans for the first quarter of 2008. ABC announced its schedule Friday.

The best news is the return of Lost for an eight-episode run beginning January 31. It moves into the Grey’s Anatomy slot Thursday nights at 9pm

Ugly Betty will keep its 8 pm slot, while rookie Eli Stone will air at 10 after the remaining original episodes of Big Shots, also in January.

The rest of the schedule includes several shows yet to debut, including Cashmere Mafia (Wednesdays at 10), Oprah’s Big Give (Sundays at 9 beginning in March) and the Dancing With the Stars spinoff, Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann (Mondays at 8).

In March, we’ll see the return of Dancing With the Stars and The Bachelor.

Following is ABC’s midseason schedule, as of Friday (Dec. 14). Here are the scheduled plans by night.

MONDAY (January)
8:00 p.m. “Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann”

9:30 p.m. “Notes from the Underbelly”

10:00 p.m. “October Road”

MONDAY (February)
8:00 p.m. “Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann”

9:00 p.m. “Samantha Who?”

9:30 p.m. “Notes from the Underbelly”

10:00 p.m. “October Road”

MONDAY (March)
8:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars”

9:30 p.m. “Samantha Who?”

10:00 p.m. “The Bachelor”

TUESDAY
8:00 p.m. “Just for Laughs”

8:30 p.m. “Just for Laughs

9:00 p.m. “According to Jim”

9:30 p.m. “Carpoolers”

10:00 p.m. “Boston Legal”

TUESDAY (March)
8:00 p.m. “Just for Laughs”

8:30 p.m. “Just for Laughs”

9:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show”

10:00 p.m. “Boston Legal”

WEDNESDAY
8:00 p.m. “Wife Swap”

9:00 p.m. “Supernanny”

10:00 p.m. “Cashmere Mafia” (“Men In Trees” beginning Feb 27)

THURSDAY (January)
8:00 p.m. “Ugly Betty”

9:00 p.m. “Grey’s Anatomy”

10:00 p.m. “Big Shots”

THURSDAY (February)
8:00 p.m. “Ugly Betty”

9:00 p.m. “Lost”

10:00 p.m. “Eli Stone”

FRIDAY
8:00 p.m. Drama encores

9:00 p.m. Drama encores

10:00 p.m. “20/20”

SUNDAY (March)
7:00 p.m. “America’s Funniest Home Videos”

8:00 p.m. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

9:00 p.m. “Oprah’s Big Give”

10:00 p.m. “Desperate Housewives”