With only one night a week of 'Dancing With the Stars' next season, ABC adding sitcoms on Tuesdays

BEVERLY HILLS — Cutting the popular “Dancing With the Stars” from two nights to just Mondays this fall will make it “more of an event,” ABC Entertainment President Paul Lee said Sunday.

That move also enables to the network to introduce a pair of comedies, “The Goldbergs” and “Trophy Wife,” on Tuesdays.

Admitting that reducing the airtime for one of the network’s biggest hits is a gamble, Lee said, “We’re swinging for the fence.”

“Dancing’s” results will be incorporated into the Monday show, though Lee didn’t rule out adding a separate results show further into the season.

Among the new shows, Lee said, ABC has particularly high hopes for “Marvel’s Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” which will debut Tuesdays at 8 p.m., and “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland,” Thursdays at 8.

Both are established brands, “S.H.I.E.L.D.” from comic books and “Wonderland” as a spinoff of ABC’s Sunday-night hit “Once Upon a Time.”

Lee said there could be further spinoffs from either source, although none are planned at the moment.

He said “Wonderland” will further one of ABC’s main missions: showcasing “incredibly empowered women.”

“This will be the most kick-ass Alice you’ve ever seen,” he said.

Elsewhere on the schedule, Lee expects “Grey’s Anatomy” to continue for “many more years” with or without star Patrick Dempsey, who commented last week that at some point he’d like to become a full-time race car driver.

Lee also said that “Revenge” will take a “less complicated” course this season with a new showrunner.

NY Daily News