New ABC Drama “Scandal” Premieres Thursday Night
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ABC/DANNY FELD(NEW YORK) — A new drama from Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes premieres Thursday night on ABC.
Scandal, starring Kerry Washington, features Olivia Pope, who runs a crisis management firm in Washington, D.C., after working as a communications director for the president. She manages her dysfunctional staff while dealing with her own personal issues.
Rhimes tells ABC News Radio that Olivia is loosely based on a real-life fixer of scandals named Judy Smith. She says Smith “worked in the Bush White House, represented Monica Lewinsky during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. And the more she talked, the more fascinated I became with this world. And I started to see — she talked for an hour and I thought I can see 100 episodes in this already.”
Scandal airs Thursday at 10 p.m. Eastern time.
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