RATINGS WOES ARE EATING HIM

THE pressure to keep ratings up is going straight to ABC entertainment president Steven McPherson‘s stomach. McPherson – nicknamed “Purple Steve” for the deep shades of red his face flushes whenever he, as one source put it, “flies into a furious rage” – is losing prime-time viewers and “freaking out” over poor ratings that were circulated internally last week. “The pressure to keep numbers high falls directly on his shoulders,” said our insider, and with hits like “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy” slipping, McPherson is said to be increasingly agitated. “He has not stopped stress-eating. He is gorging himself and he won’t stop,” the source said. We’re told part of McPherson’s stress comes from having to lay off his staffers, which “he doesn’t want to do before the holidays.” An ABC rep had no comment on layoffs or ratings, but told us the weight-gain rumors “are absolutely absurd. He’s actually lost weight.”