'Pushing Daisies,' 'Dirty Sexy Money,' 'Lost,' 'Grey's Anatomy' and 'Desperate Housewives' are among those returning

ABC has picked up nine of its most successful scripted shows for the 2008-09 season, including first-year offerings "Pushing Daisies," "Private Practice," "Samantha Who?" and "Dirty Sexy Money."

In addition to those four new shows, ABC gave no-brainer early pick-ups to "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy," "Lost," "Ugly Betty" and "Brothers & Sisters."

"The strength of our schedule this fall was unprecedented and speaks for itself," says Stephen McPherson, president, ABC Entertainment. "We're looking forward to building on that success."

None of ABC's pick-ups can be considered a real surprise and a number of programs on the network's schedule remain currently unrenewed, including freshman drama "Women's Murder Club," the Emmy-winning "Boston Legal" and "Men in Trees," which still has an unholy number of unaired episodes in the can.

A more interesting question isn't which ABC shows will be back next season, but which ABC shows will be back with new episodes later this season.

With the writers strike finally at an end, networks will have to decide which shows will be put back into production to yield fresh installments later in the spring and which will just hold off for next fall. It's expected, for example, that ABC will get new episodes of "Samantha Who?" but that "Private Practice," "Pushing Daisies" and "Dirty Sexy Money" are all done for this season. Also expected to shoot new episodes are "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy," "Ugly Betty," "Boston Legal" and "Brothers & Sisters."

Even those new shows that don't return to the airwaves this spring may go back into production for a time. All four first-year series were picked up for a full season this year, and the network is deciding case-by-case whether to have them make a few more episodes to bank for the fall.

Thus far, there's no word on the fate of "Cavemen" and "According to Jim."