TV upfront report

Last week was a big week for television networks. Throughout the week, the five major networks debuted their fall 2008 schedules for advertisers. But the schedules also serve another purpose: to let people hypothesize what will be the crucial shows next season. The following are reports for each network.\nABC – The alphabet network has the most solid nightly lineup, so it’s no surprise that they only have five new shows, the biggest of which isn’t even a new one. “Scrubs,” which has always been produced by ABC studios, will make the move to ABC midseason for its final season after being dragged through the mud by NBC for too long. The other new program getting some buzz is “Life On Mars,” a BBC remake where a cop gets in an accident and wakes up in 1973. The British version was widely popular, but when we yanks redo their shows, it seems to be hit or miss.\nCBS – The eyeball had a rough year. Only one of its 2007-08 newbies made it to season two and a couple of other shows, “Jericho” and “Shark,” failed miserably in their second seasons. Sadly for CBS, the network’s new shows don’t inspire much confidence. Its two new comedies, “Project Gary” and “Worst Week,” look dreadful, and the high-profile drama “The Mentalist” is a blatant rip-off of “Psych.” Moving ratings stud “Without a Trace” to Tuesday could give the network another huge night.\nNBC – NBC never seems to know what it’s doing, and it looks like nothing has changed. It cancelled “Journeyman,” and gave “Friday Night Lights” a shoddy deal with DirectTV. Moreover, the new shows look like a range of bad and worse: “Merlin,” a before-they-were-heroes program about Arthur and his crazy old friend; the awful “Knight Rider” remake; a spin-off of “The Office”; and “Crusoe,” about a guy trapped on an island by himself. At least they kept “Chuck” around.\nFOX – This should be a huge year for Fox. They have the two most-buzzed-about new shows: “Fringe,” an “X-Files” style show from J.J. Abrams, and “Dollhouse” from Joss Whedon. Both “Fringe” and “Dollhouse” will attract massive viewers no matter how good they are, and the announcement that they will have only five minutes of commercials has excited more. On the animated front, they have “Sit Down, Shut Up” from “Arrested Development” producer Mitchell Hurwitz and the “Family Guy” spin-off “Cleveland,” which should be big as well.\nThe CW – With their ratings deep in the toilet, The CW has decided to target only young girls, by producing two new shows that are almost identical to their supposed hit “Gossip Girl.” They’re hoping the “90210” redo and “How To Survive the Filthy Rich” bring the texting crowd in, but it’s risky when no one is watching. Kudos to them for keeping the awesome “Reaper” around, though.\nNext year’s TV slate isn’t that impressive, but expect FOX and CBS to have the most success with their new shows. And if we’re lucky, The CW will just fold and go away.