Men are the new women on unsympathetic ‘Big Shots’

ABC executives must have pondered long and hard before deciding what show should follow the network’s hit “Grey’s Anatomy.”

“Men in Trees” followed that series long enough that it got renewed, but since it was losing about half of the “Grey’s” audience, it got shifted back to Fridays this fall. “Grey’s” was even powerful enough to get the sappy “October Road” renewed for midseason.

So what did ABC settle on? “Big Shots,” debuting at 10 tonight, which is about four wealthy alpha males bemoaning the various crises in their lives. One character summed it up well by saying, “Men. We’re the new women.”

It helped that they’re all handsome dudes, and that their libidoes lead them into places they shouldn’t go.

Duncan Collinsworth (Dylan McDermott, “The Practice”) is a cosmetics CEO who is hooking up with his ex-wife (Paige Turco), trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter (Peyton List) and hoping to avoid an unsavory scandal.

Brody Johns (Christopher Titus, “Titus”) runs a crisis-management firm, yet is a henpecked husband on the homefront.

Karl Mixworthy (Joshua Malina, “The West Wing”), a pharmaceuticals exec, has a devoted wife at home and a buxom mistress, the two of which are soon to meet.

James Walker (Michael Vartan, “Alias”) finds out his longtime wife is cheating on him, just before he gets promoted to run a department store conglomerate.

“Big Shots” is about bonding: over drinks, over golf, at the health club. The concept is that it’s good to see that even the rich have problems, too.

Still, it’s hard to feel sorry for them when so much of what they face is self-inflicted. At least the young professionals of “Grey’s” are learning and growing. These “Big Shots” don’t seem to learn from their past mistakes. And being unsympathetic will get you canceled when you’re up against perennials “Without a Trace” and “ER.”