One, "Life on Mars," a remake of a BBC drama, stars Jason O'Mara ("Men in Trees") as a police detective who's hit by a car and wakes up in 1973, still a detective.

The other, "Opportunity Knocks," is produced by Ashton Kutcher and is a game show that takes place in contestants' homes. There were a few midseason series pickups: another Kutcher "reality" series, co-produced with Tyra Banks, that's supposed to be a new twist of some sort - very hush-hush - on beauty pageants; 18 episodes of "Scrubs," which NBC canceled but which ABC produces; and "The Goode Family," an animated series from "King of the Hill's" Mike Judge.

More series are in the pipeline for midseason, McPherson promised, while describing it as "an incredibly stable schedule."

How stable? Well, he's bringing back "According to Jim," The Show That Will Not Die, along with "America's Funniest Home Videos," "Boston Legal," "Brothers & Sisters," "Dancing with the Stars," "Desperate Housewives," "Dirty Sexy Money," "Eli Stone," "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," "Grey's Anatomy," "Private Practice," "Pushing Daisies," "Samantha Who?," "Supernanny," "Ugly Betty," "Wife Swap," "20/20," "The Bachelor," "Lost" and the news division's "Primetime: What Would You Do?"

It's undeniably an odd year, thanks to a writers strike that disrupted viewing patterns just as the increasing use of DVRs was helping to send the Nielsens for many shows in a tailspin. (A recent Entertainment Weekly poll found that 31 percent of DVR/

TiVo users watch none of the shows they record and that 35 percent watch fewer than 10 percent, suggesting that our machines may just be recording for their own pleasure.)

Most of the networks have scaled back their once-lavish presentations to advertisers - a May ritual known as "the upfronts" because this is when they get advertising commitments up front - and if ABC's is any indication, there will be even more talk than usual about the business of show business and less about the shows themselves.

It's a stark contrast to the scene a year ago this week, when McPherson had a dozen new shows to rave about. But then that was the same press conference at which he described "Cavemen" as "insightful and smart," so contrast isn't necessarily a bad thing. "Jim" may have made the cut, but his Cro-Magnon brethren did not.

Also missing in action are: "Men in Trees," "October Road," "Women's Murder Club," "Big Shots" and "Carpoolers." Other tidbits from ABC's fall preview:

_ Get ready to bid farewell to Denny Crain and company. In discussing the renewal of "Boston Legal," McPherson referred to its "final season." That season will be 13 episodes long, not 22, but he expects creator David E. Kelley, apparently no longer working on "Life on Mars," to write most or all the episodes.

_ Dana Delany will be back on "Desperate Housewives" next season, said McPherson, who insisted that Nicollette Sheridan would too, despite an Associated Press story quoting the show's creator, Marc Cherry, as saying Sheridan's Edie, "won't be back for a few years." Can those two statements both be true? Think flash-forwards, suggested one helpful ABCer. If so, "Lost" has much to answer for.

_ Whether or not ABC goes after Jay Leno when NBC replaces him with Conan O'Brien next year, Jimmy Kimmel should be OK. "He's firing on all cylinders," said McPherson of the late-night host, and "any conversation that would go on with Leno" would include Kimmel.

As for the competition for Leno's services, "he's still the No. 1 late-night talk-show host, so it's an odd time for him to be leaving someplace. I think he's in a good position."

_ Moving "Ugly Betty" to New York doesn't just save money under the state's hefty new tax credit, it returns the series to the place the pilot was filmed, noted McPherson. "As much as people try to cheat [fake] New York, it's really hard to do so," he said, while admitting that without the tax credit, it wouldn't have worked financially. As for Lindsay Lohan, guest-starring in "Betty's" season finale - as the latest to embrace the Britney Spears Comedy Rehab regimen - "she's going to do more episodes next season."

_ You know those schedule overruns you hate, the ones that screw up recordings, either because your DVR doesn't catch them or because they interfere with recording something in the next time slot? Not going away. McPherson, not for the first time, blamed "the big hit shows" that sometimes come in too long, while acknowledging that, OK, it's sometimes done for other, meaner reasons.

Meanwhile, at the CW

For nostalgia's sake, the network's hired the old "90210's" Jennie Garth to play one of the grown-ups. (With any luck, she won't be a grandmother.)

The network, which in the past has announced its schedule in an extremely loud event at Madison Square Garden, was opting last night for a cocktail party/presentation more typical of the networks' downsized meetings with advertisers this week.

Among the tidbits:

_ The critically acclaimed but little-watched "Aliens in America" didn't make the cut, along with "Life Is Wild," but "Reaper" will return at midseason.

_ Also back: "Gossip Girl," "The Game," "Everybody Hates Chris" (moving yet again, to Fridays), "One Tree Hill," "America's Next Top Model," "Smallville" and "Supernatural."

_ The network's trying to get out of the business of programming Sunday nights - when almost no one appears to remember there is a CW - through a partnership with Media Rights Capital, an outside studio, but wasn't ready to release details yesterday.

_ New CW shows include "Surviving the Filthy Rich," with "Reba's" JoAnna Garcia as a would-be journalist who ends up tutoring a cosmetic mogul's "twin teen granddaughters" instead, and "Stylista," a "The Devil Wears Prada"-inspired "reality" show in which contestants vie for a job at Elle magazine. *

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