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The American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Inc., is an American media company that owns a commercial broadcast television network, a number of specialty channels, and various independent production and distribution companies. Since 2007, ABC has reduced its operations almost exclusively to television.
It is the television network that first developed Devious Maids. However, they passed on the project for the 2012-13 television season. After that, Lifetime picked up the show for a 13 episode first season.
History[]
In the 1920s, NBC and CBS were the two main radio networks available. NBC had two different networks, the Blue network and the Red network. In 1943, NBC sold its Blue network to Edward Novel, who changed its name to ABC, in 1944. The ABC network began its airings on April 19th 1958. The three letters of its acronym have earned it the nickname "the alphabet network."
On February 9th of the same year, the ownership of ABC was transferred to UPT, and in 1953 it was owned by Capital Cities company. In 1996, ABC was eventually sold to The Walt Disney Company, which has maintained its ownership until the present day. Specifically, the network's full name is American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., and is owned by the acronym-named parent company ABC, Inc. (formerly Capital Cities/ABC Inc.), which is owned by Disney. Disney also owns Touchstone Picutres, and therefore also owns its subsidiary ABC Television Studio, formerly Touchstone Television, which produces Lost. Disney's Buena Vista Television is the entity responsible for the management of ABC Television Studio's and ABC's television syndication.
Devious Maids[]
The pilot of the show is based on the Mexican TV series Ellas son la Alegría del Hogar, which translates to English as "They Are the Home's Joy" and was heavily influenced by Cherry's previous series Desperates Housewives. ABC ordered the pilot on January 31, 2012. Actress Eva Longoria was announced as an executive producer on March 26. She had worked previously with Cherry on Desperate Housewives, and was hired to add perspective to the Latina roles.
ABC Studios gave Cherry permission to start making senior staffing offers for the show on May 1, which was perceived as an indication that the show would be picked up. On May 14, 2012, the pilot was not picked to series by ABC for the 2012–13 United States network schedule.