ABC Considers Fall Break

[staypuftman2004]

ABC is mulling a dramatic pause for fall.

The network, which hasn't picked up a single drama pilot after the end of the writers strike, still plans to order as many as seven hourlong pilots this season but might not be in a rush because all of them would be targeted for a midseason, not for fall, sources said.

ABC, which had the strongest slate of new series last fall, still will be busy on the drama side in September, when it will relaunch recently renewed freshmen "Pushing Daisies," "Private Practice" and "Dirty Sexy Money," whose first-year runs were cut short by the strike. ABC has one completed drama pilot, David E. Kelley's "Life on Mars."

The network, which declined comment, also handed out a six-episode order to the sci-fi drama "Section 8" shortly before the strike.