ALIAS GETS A MAKEOVER
22 JUNE 2004. SOURCE: TV GUIDE ONLINE

With ratings for Alias down 9 percent last season, series J.J. Abrams has turned to the show's original concept for its fourth season. When it returns next January, the series will again concentrate on Sydney juggling her dual roles as an international spy and normal twentysomething.

"We got so deep in the Rimbaldi and Covenant [mysteries] that we lost sight of some of the stuff we fell in love with [in the beginning]," ABC entertainment president Stephen McPherson told TV Guide Online. "J.J. is talking about getting back to some of the joy that she used to have in her personal life early on...while still living in this crazy world."

Abrams says he had an ephiphany about Alias' third season while he was working on the pilot for his upcoming ABC thriller, Lost. "Going away to do Lost allowed me to look at Alias in a way that I could not have done otherwise - from the outside," he explains. "And it was like an incredibly enlightening thing. I suddenly knew in my heart what I wanted and what I didn't want - and I saw what was happening. Not that I wasn't proud of what was there, but I saw some mistakes that I made and I thought, 'Oh my God.'

"It was like going home and watching the game on TV - it gives you that perspective that you don't have when you're playing it," he adds. "I have a knowledge of the show I never had before."

Meanwhile, Abrams is not unhappy that ABC is delaying the show's return until January. "I was begging them to do it," he admits, noting that the midseason launch will allow the series to run its 20 episodes uninterrupted by reruns. "Every time we would return after three or four weeks of repeats, our ratings would dip. Every time."

Abrams also believes that the move should not be interpreted as any lack of faith in the series by ABC. "I guess you could argue that shuffling it to the back makes it look less important to them, but I think it's actually the opposite. If they didn't believe in the show they wouldn't have a) picked it up, b) ordered 20 [episodes] and c) strategised how to maximise its [potential]."

"I couldn't believe more in the show," McPherson says. "We're going to be launching a lot of new dramas in the fall and we wouldn't have been able to put any money [into promoting Alias]. So we felt the best thing to do was bring it on in January when we've got all [20 episodes] and a huge promotion platform with the Academy Awards."

McPherson also insists that there's "not a chance" season 4 could be Alias' last. "It will be an asset for years." BACK TO THE TOP