Sounding about as sincere as a Seattle injury lawyer, Stephen McPherson, president of ABC’s entertainment division, mock-mourned the cancellations he ordered for both Pushing Daisies and Eli Stone. (Dirty Sexy Money was also mentioned, which just goes to prove his insincerity.)

Daises and Stone are two of the freshest shows ABC has aired since debuting LOST several seasons ago, and yet declining ratings – which are linked directly to the writer’s strike and viewer apprehension over a threatened actor’s strike – were his excuse, even though he talked about how poor a tool the current Nielsen system is for measuring total viewership, considering all the ways and venues a show can now draw viewers from.

Of course, the grief expressed might have been more convincing if McPherson hadn’t been so evasive on the subject of when the final episodes of Stone and Daisies would air – speculation is that, at best, they will burn the episodes off over the summer; at worst, that they’ll be posted for online viewing at ABC.com and never make it to air, although they will surely show up on the expected “Complete Series” DVD/Blu-Ray collections sure to follow.