ABC Fires President Paul Lee: Here's His 5 Biggest Triumphs and 5 Worst Disasters

Another one bites the dust. ABC pushed network president Paul Lee out of his office Wednesday, reports The New York Times. Lee's reign atop the Alphabet began mid-2010. He'll be replaced by one of his lieutenants, former drama development executive Channing Dungey, who becomes the first black female American network president in history. Hooray, progress! The move comes right in the middle of pilot season, which may have something to do with the fact that Lee's ways—favoring serialized series—didn't jibe with Disney-ABC Television Group chairman Ben Sherwood's desire for more procedural-style shows, according to the NYT. That might mean we can expect some sort of Army-related CSI team coming next year to ABC. Oh joy.

ABC has had its ups and downs since Lee joined the Disney family (as has every network in these turbulent times), but Lee always had a flair for funneling in big risks with high concepts. From my standpoint, that's a lot more fun than the vanilla doctor/cop/lawyer shows other networks favor, but Lee's wild swings didn't always connect with viewers. Here's a look at what I think were Lee's five biggest triumphs and five biggest disasters during his tenure at ABC. 

TRIUMPH: Resuscitating ABC Family

Before ruling ABC, London-born Lee was brought on from the BBC to help fix the ailing ABC Family in 2004. And boy did he. Tapping into the lucrative young adult crowd, Lee took ABC Family from a competitor to Nickelodeon to a network targeting the fast-growing sector that advertisers adored. From that, shows like Kyle XY, Greek, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and Pretty Little Liars were born, and your little sister was STOKED. 

DISASTER: Efforts to draw in the male crowd

ABC was doing fine—but not GREAT—when Lee stepped in to take over the network, based on his success with ABC Family. Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, and Lost were all big hits and cornerstones to something greater. But the challenge was always going to be finding the next Lost, which helped even out the network's female-skewing numbers and ended as Lee took a seat in his chair. You remember how that endeavor went. Among Lee's efforts at bringing in bros with misguided science-fiction: Zero Hour, 666 Park Avenue, The Whispers, and The River. He did find critical success with Shawn Ryan's submarine drama Last Resort (Lee's biggest effort to attract males; I LOVED that show!), but straying from the brand proved too hard for viewers to accept. Would you buy boxer shorts from Victoria's Secret? 

TRIUMPH: The Wednesday night family comedy block

So Lee wasn't good at getting the dudes. What he was great at was family comedy, and under his tutelage, ABC became the new powerhouse for a solid midweek comedy block. Sure, Modern Family and The Middle were launched in 2009 before Lee, but under Lee, ABC developed The Goldbergs and Black-ish. Those four comedies makeup a two-hour slot that every other network is supremely jealous of; viewers love them and they're always present come awards season. 

DISASTER: Pretty much every other comedy

This is where the Paul Lee-ness of Paul Lee really came into play. Many of his decisions regarding comedy were laughable, and not in that good kind of laughing-at-comedy way. But you had to hand it to the guy for sticking up for his choices even when they were flaming turd piles. Remember these? Manhattan Love Story, Man Up!, The Family Tools, Mixology, How to Live With Your Parents (for the Rest of Your Life), and Super Fun Night? I'll also throw in his stubborn decision to NOT schedule Trophy Wife on Wednesday nights, where it belonged. Instead, he kept Super Fun Night behind Modern Family despite being very different in tone and so awful I still wake up from night terrors featuring visions of Rebel Wilson in Spanx. 

TRIUMPH: Letting Shonda Rhimes do her thing

Despite the push to expand ABC's audience, Lee knew which shows wrote the checks. Shonda Rhimes, super-producer and one of the most powerful human beings in Hollywood, has a gosh darned empire and it's best not to stand in her way. Scandal, How to Get Away With Murder, and Rhimes' pre-existing vehicle Grey's Anatomy continue to be money-makers for ABC, and Rhimes' shows have been copy-catted for even more programming, including ABC's biggest new hit this season Quantico. Rhimes is also a producer on the upcoming drama The Catch, which premieres in March and looks like another winner. It's odd to praise someone else for another's work, but in this business of egos, Lee deserves some credit for recognizing what worked and how to build it up. And his peculiar decision to schedule all of Rhimes' shows on the same night actually worked and allowed the network to experiment with the rest of its schedule, for better or for worse.

DISASTER: Other attempts to capture the female audience

Charlie's Angels, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland,  Killer Women, Black Box. Ouch. Revenge did okay, but then attempts at mimicking the series (Red Widow, Betrayal) showed that ABC was out of ideas and just how narrow it had become.

TRIUMPH: Bringing in diversification

While this wasn't all on Lee's shoulders (again, we have to point towards Rhimes), he was heavily invested in bringing about new colors to your television sets. Aside from Scandal and  How to Get Away With Murder being primetime dramas led by African-American women, Lee also gave us Fresh Off the Boat and Black-ish, a pair of family comedies on a major network where white actors played the supporting role and the topics of race were discussed frankly, with sensitivity, and intelligently. Quantico's India-born Priyanka Chopra is now a major star, 12 Years a Slave's John Ridley is delivering thought-provoking television with American Crime, and Marvel's Agent Carter is showing that not only can superhero shows be about women, they can be better than the ones with the boys. Lee pushed for this, and should be applauded for it.

DISASTER: Harebrained reality ideas

Oh my god, ABC's reality shows. If I had a time machine, I wouldn't kill baby Hitler or throw loads of money at Apple stock in the '90s, I'd sit in the pitch meetings for these idiotic shows. He had celebrities diving (Celebrity Splash), for crying out loud. He allowed a big-budget competition reality show set in a fake fantasy world (The Quest) to get the greenlight. He condoned gambling on babies in Fight Club-style challenges (Bet on Your Baby)!!! Also: Sing Your Face Off, Rising Star, and 500 Questions. 

TRIUMPH: Bachelor Pad, Bachelor in Paradise

On the flip side, he did give us these two Bachelor spin-offs. No YOU shut up, they're awesome.

DISASTER: Work It

Work It was so absolutely terrible it deserves its own spot on this list. "It's in my contract," Lee said of the cross-dressing comedy that lasted two episodes, which was five episodes longer than it should have. "I have to do a cross-dressing show every year. I grew up on Monty Python." Graham Chapman is spinning in his grave.

What do you think were Paul Lee's best and worst contributions to television?