TELEVISION ; ABC May Do Some Late-Night Talking

By AMY AMATANGELO

BEVERLY HILLS – Jimmy Kimmel isn’t going anywhere.

The late-night host made a surprise appearance yesterday at ABC’s presentation to the Television Critics Association here.

The network had fun addressing rumors that ABC is courting Jay Leno for a show after he steps down as scheduled from “The Tonight Show” next year.

Posing as a reporter from the Sarasota Star Herald Tribune, Kimmel asked Stephen McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment, “Is there any truth to those rumors? If that were, God forbid, to happen, would Ted Koppel get fired or how would that work?”

McPherson said the network is “hugely supportive” of “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

“The show creatively is firing on all cylinders,” he said. But McPherson didn’t dismiss the idea of hiring Leno.

“I can’t believe (NBC) is going to let this guy go at the top of his game,” he said. “If that happens, we’ll look at it at the time and Jimmy will be part of those discussions.”

ABC has only two new shows for the fall: the drama “Life on Mars,” which is going through recasts, and “Opportunity Knocks,” a game show from executive producer Ashton Kutcher.

The network will focus on relaunching returning sophomore dramas, McPherson said.

Katie Holmes will guest as a lawyer on “Eli Stone,” which returns for a second season Oct. 14, he confirmed. The role will reunite the actress with executive producer Greg Berlanti, who was an executive producer on “Dawson’s Creek.”

Holmes will appear in the Oct. 21 episode. “There’s actually some singing and dancing that she does, and she’s exquisite,” McPherson said.

The “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff “Private Practice” will become less of a soap opera and more about medical drama when it returns Oct. 1. Addison (Kate Walsh) will get back to doing surgery.

“One of the things we all felt is that it didn’t feel like a real business,” he said.

McPherson also addressed the speculation that “Grey’s” star Katherine Heigl would be written off the show given her recent remarks about dismal story lines.

“There are so many people who work unbelievably hard to make that show the No. 1 show in the country. . . . I never like to see when any of them are in any way taken lightly, so I think that was really unfortunate,” he said. “She’s absolutely staying with the show. There’s an unbelievable story line for her this year, which is really central to everything that is going to go on this season.”

– amybostonherald@hotmail.com

Originally published by By AMY AMATANGELO.

(c) 2008 Boston Herald. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.