· Stephen McPherson has signed a "multiyear deal" as president of ABC Entertainment. A Snookies basket, card attached reading, "Congrats on the re-up, D-girl! Love, Ben" is on its way as we speak. [Variety]
· The Gong Show is coming back, in a revival on Comedy Central set to be hosted by Dave Attell. On a personal note, this comes as thrilling news to us, as we've not yet found a wide enough platform with which to thrill millions with our "Have You Got a Nickel?" act. [Variety]
· MTV has purchased a competitive reality show from Justin Timberlake and FreemantleMedia called The Phone, which is based on a Dutch format (what is it with those Dutch and their wacky reality show ideas!) that "[plunges] the contestants into a real life Bourne Identity." We're not sure what that means, but we hope it involves having them break each other's windpipes with the spine of a paperback. [THR]

The operation to remove Washington, 43, was quick and neat. The studio declined to exercise his contract option for another season — Washington would have earned about $2.7 million in salary — and he was dumped shortly after the May finale.

With Dr. Burke conveniently written out of the show in the last episode, the move had to have been planned for some time.

The decision was made by executives including ABC Studios President Mark Pedowitz, ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson and Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. ABC and the studio declined comment this week, but Washington said he was "saddened" by the outcome.

The offing, as most everyone knows by now, was in direct response to Washington's repeated release of Gay F-Bombs on or near his fellow cast members, but an anonymous source also points towards a disturbing "pattern of behavior," including one 1997 incident that saw the actor manhandle a movie costumer who had the audacity to request he remove a magazine from his pocket for a shot. It's precisely this kind of volatility that terrifies a network president: If closeted gay actors and wardrobe people can't feel safe around the talent, their days of primetime stardom are likely numbered, and the only course of action is to order an underling to take care of the matter for them.

• Inside the 'Grey's Anatomy' firing [AP]

Almost as soon as ABC announced its surprise move for the smash hit "Grey's Anatomy," to 9 p.m. Thursdays this fall, industry veterans speculated that NBC would be forced to hustle Aaron Sorkin's new showbiz satire "Studio 60 from the Sunset Strip" out of that slot to a more hospitable, if you will, region.

But where? And what could take its place?

So far the network isn't talking, but one scenario being buzzed about has "Studio 60" transferring to Mondays, with the Thursday 9 p.m. spot going to "Scrubs" and another yet-unknown sitcom. (NBC executives said earlier this week that "Scrubs" would be held until later in the season.)

Meanwhile, CBS's Les Moonves, whose CSI is the Thursday night Charybdis to the Grey's Anatomy Scylla terrorizing Studio 60 [Ed.note—Is this post about chess or mythology? Is there no Lohan joke to be made here?], cackled with glee at NBC's predicament: "If I were Aaron Sorkin, I wouldn't be very happy this morning." Moonves then mused about the possibility of calling up his pals at Fox and asking them to cram all of their American Idol programming into the Thursday 9 p.m. slot, just so "we can all watch Kevin Reilly weep."

• Upfronts: Will NBC Move Sorkin's 'Studio 60?' [Channel Island]
• CBS is playing it cool [LAT]

"Certainly, there's not a show that's better on TV. We feel like it's a show that deserves its own night," ABC Entertainment chief Steve McPherson told reporters at an 8 am press conference Tuesday. "I think there is plenty of room for both ("Grey's" and "C.S.I.")...It establishes another strong place on the schedule for us."

It's a classic demonstration of upfronts gamesmanship by "Purple" Steve McPherson; not only did he claim Thursday night for his show despite the presence of ratings juggernaut CSI, his tactical omission of NBC's new offering slyly reveals his intention to crush his weaker NBC rival with his team of endlessly speechifying doctors. We really hope that ABC's presentation to advertisers later today is a little less subtle, perhaps involving an expensive, gut-churning sketch involving the Grey's cast cutting open flatlining Studio 60 star Matthew Perry, but maybe that's more of a Les Moonves move.

• Alphabet shifting 'Anatomy' [Variety]

Carter also details McPherson's reputation for poor anger management, quoting an agent who nicknamed him "purple Steve," because "when he got angry, he would get so red in the face. And there were times when he would get so sullen he would literally mumble."

Zucker is characterized as failing upward while NBC's prime time schedule unraveled. Agents complain that he was inattentive during meetings, focusing more on the TV sets in his office than on the major writers pitching him their series.

"He was taking credit for what others have done," says former NBC programming strategist Preston Beckman (now at Fox) in the book. "You listen to him and it's like: What the fuck have you done? There was arrogance; there was haughtiness. He was dismantling what we had built at NBC and making it seem like he invented it all."

Moonves (who, we learn, privately refers to Zucker as "Zippy") is generally lauded, but he doesn't escape some frank treatment of his own temper. A CBS executive recalls a contentious staff meeting in which the CBS chief literally drew blood—his own. While nervously scratching his own cheek, "Moonves got so worked up, and the scratching got so fevered, that blood began dripping down his face onto his shirt."

Co-workers and professional competitors alike shouldn't mistake Moonves' obsessive scratching as a sign of weakness. The gleamingly betoothed CBS despot's disturbing flesh-rending is just a tool in his competitive arsenal; if the unexpected self-lacerations aren't enough to scare his adversaries into submission, Moonves smears the blood across his face like crude war paint, signalling his intentions to wage battle in the boardroom. And should that extreme tactic fails to intimidate, he escalates the alpha-male displays to slowly unbuttoning his shirt and shaving the words "Surrender now or die!" into his thicket of chest hair, a terrifying manscaping ritual that few have witnessed and even fewer have survived.

• Carter Dishes on "Zippy," "Purple Steve" [Broadcasting and Cable]

"The success of last year, I take that with a grain of salt," McPherson, who formerly ran ABC's sister studio, Touchstone Television, said. "With this job, you're judged on what you did well last week, not last year."

Yeah, yeah perspective perspective humblehumblehumble. You know what? Humble is fucking boring! We know that the TCA's aren't exactly the upfronts, the contest where executives have to plop their engorged members on the table as advertisers stroll by with their tape measures, ruthlessly converting inches to ad dollars. But where's the swagger? Where's the Moonvesian delight in crushing your enemies, seeing them driven before you, and hearing the lamentations of the women? In short, where were McPherson's Jeff Zucker jokes? Yes, that's more of Moonves's "thing," but the network TV business is all about stealing each other's ideas. We have to wonder if Stevie Mac has the killer instinct necessary to keep ABC's foot on NBC's throat—and, perhaps more importantly, to keep Moonves from spitballing some "McPherson is my new bitch" material if his hits start to slip in the ratings.

• Desperate? Lost? Not this network [LAT]
• Previously: TV Critics Miss Les Moonves’ Thirst For Zucker Humiliation [Defamer]