Just a year ago, many industry analysts were questioning whether Desperate Housewives could take over CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as the number one show on US television. But with Housewives suffering from ratings erosion this season, Grey's Anatomy has instead become ABC's biggest show. Now ABC has decided to better utilize its ratings juggernaut and will next season move it opposite CSI in an attempt to topple CBS's show from the top spot.

"We feel it's a show that deserves the 9 o'clock time period," said ABC entertainment president Stephen McPherson announcing the show's move from its current Sunday 10pm slot, according to Hollywood Reporter. "It deserves to be on the mantle of great shows on television."

Anatomy will form part of a totally new Thursday for the network which will focus mostly on comedy. The evening will open with two new comedies, Big Day (about a couple's wedding day) and Notes From the Underbelly (about an expectant couple and their friends) before leading into Anatomy at 9pm and then a shift towards drama with Six Degrees at 10pm.

Desperate Housewives will now be in the lead-in for Brothers & Sisters, which stars star Calista Flockhart and Rachel Griffiths. Other changes on ABC's schedules include Dancing With the Stars will move to Tuesdays and Lost will have a new lead-out in the form of The Nine, which borrows the Lost's flashback device in reverse by following the lives of nine people who were involved in a hostage situation with flashbacks to their traumatic event. "You have to be aggressive," McPherson said of ABC's new fall schedule. "You have to play the cards you're dealt, and we've got some good cards."

Casualties of the the new schedule, not surprisingly, include Commander in Chief and Invasion. However ABC is considering a Commander in Chief telemovie, according to Backstage. The idea has been pitched by the show's creator, who ABC fired from the show before its rapid fall from grace. "We're still debating it [whether to go ahead] and will decide over the summer," McPherson said.

The original report can be found at Hollywood Reporter.

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