This is one in a series of Media Life previews of those programs.
 
Name of show
“Eli Stone”
 
Timeslot
ABC, Thursday 10 p.m.
 
Plot synopsis
“Eli Stone” follows Eli Stone (Jonny Lee Miller), a San Francisco corporate lawyer who starts to have hallucinations, beginning with George Michael--yes, that George Michael--performing his hit “Faith” in his living room.
 
Stone's neurologist brother Nathan (Matt Letsher) discovers that the hallucinations are caused by an inoperable brain aneurysm. Then Stone finds an acupuncturist, Dr. Chen (James Saito), who can probe Stone's mind to remember key moments from the past. Dr. Chen suggests that Stone might be a prophet.
 
Stone takes this notion and runs with it, incorporating his newfound outlook on life into his work as a lawyer. Of course, the situation is not easily explained to his fiancée, Taylor (Natasha Henstride), or her father, Jordan Wethersby (Victor Garber), who happens to be Stone’s boss and mentor.
 
The somewhat fantastical legal drama also stars Loretta Devine as Stone’s assistant, Patti, Sam Jaeger as co-worker Matt Dowd, and Julie Gonzalo as junior associate Maggie.
 
Outlook
“Eli Stone” takes over the Thursday 10 p.m. timeslot where “Big Shots” averaged a dismal 3.3 rating among viewers 18-49 this season, losing more than half its “Grey’s Anatomy” lead-in. This timeslot has been a nagging problem for ABC over the past year and a half, with four dramas rotated through without much success.

But there are a couple of factors that could work in “Stone's" favor.
 
First, the show leads out of the hit “Lost,” which tonight moves to the Thursday 9 p.m. timeslot, and that show should perform well considering it’s one of the few returning scripted shows with new episodes remaining.

The hope for ABC is that “Lost” returns big and that viewers hang around for “Eli Stone.”
 
Also, the 10 p.m. timeslot isn’t as strong as it once was, in part because of the writers’ strike.

ABC won’t have to worry about competition from NBC’s longtime hit “ER,” which ran out of originals and has been taken off the schedule. It faces instead the second half of “Celebrity Apprentice” this week and then the new drama “Lipstick Jungle” beginning next week.

“Jungle” isn’t expected to draw a huge audience. A similar show on ABC has already done poorly.
 
On CBS, "Stone" will face repeats of “Without a Trace,” which are drawing less than a 3.5 rating.
 
The buzz
While still a drama set in the world of law, the general sense about “Eli Stone” is that its lighter tone will help balance the legal side of things. “It’s intelligent and quirky,” says Tracie Chinetti, senior buyer/planner at Blitz Media in Boston. “I think it’s one of those shows that bridges both comedy and drama.”
 
Chinetti says ABC had held "Stone" for the midseason so it could release it a less-cluttered environment, and of course the writers’ strike has made the environment even sparser.

She says that lack of new scripted fare will help “Eli Stone” but that it very well could survive against even stiff competition. There's room for it.
 
“There was room for both 'Without a Trace' and 'ER,' so I think there’s room for more than one strong drama in that time period,” she says.
 
“I do think it’s the type of show people are remembering from the promotions, so that helps.”
 
What critics are saying
“Eli Stone combines the whimsy of ‘Ally McBeal’ with the courtroom contortions of ‘Boston Legal’ — yet falls short of the entertainment value of both. Perhaps it’s familiarity. We’ve seen all this before from more convincingly quirky and appealing ensembles.” – Tom Jicha, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
 
“Greg Berlanti (‘Brothers & Sisters,’ ‘Everwood’) and Marc Guggenheim (‘Brothers & Sisters,’ ‘The Practice’) have concocted a fanciful story that may ring truer with former hippie baby boomers than with Gen Y overachievers. An imaginative premise built around a likable lead makes this a welcome hour when so little else is beaming through during the strike. Still, it may be too woo-woo for those who like their TV lawyers more ‘Shark’-like.” – Joanne Ostrow, Denver Post
 
“On the plus side, ABC has 13 installments at its disposal as scripted TV does its own slow fade, with a truncated season of ‘Lost’ as its Thursday-night lead-in. At least initially, though, ‘Eli Stone’ doesn’t pursue its premise with the kind of gusto its hero is counseled to apply to his life, which is enough to make you wish those responsible for the show had a little more faith of their own.” – Brian Lowry, Variety