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Television studies have identified the advent of Quality Drama in 1982, that is, an ambitious, realistic American series that conveys a critical discourse on the viewer’s reality. On a socio-economic level, this creative innovation marks above all the breakthrough of an editorial line, that of NBC, which was thus able to capture a white, urban audience in its thirties, with strong purchasing power. But after two decades of leadership, this firm collapsed in the ratings, to the benefit of its competitor ABC. This article sheds light on the modalities of this creative-industrial shift, based on a cross-analysis of the three most watched new series of the 2004-2005 season, all broadcast by ABC: Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy. Taking into account their production and programming context, it articulates a neutralization of the social and critical impact of serialized drama: first through an aesthetic and narrative matrix shaped by soap operas, and then through an apparently progressive political discourse concerning the multiculturalism of North American society.