Fall TV

Do you like to watch TV? I do. Once upon a time, I had shows every single night that I couldn't bear to miss. Although I'm much better about it than I used to be, I watch about 1-2 hours a night. I record Ellen everyday, so that's an hour, and the rest shapes up like this:

Monday: nothing
Tuesday: American Idol (only until next week though!)
Wednesday: Lost (tape American Idol results show)
Thursday: nothing (American Inventor's final episode was last night)
Friday: nothing
Saturday: nothing
Sunday: Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy

The season is winding down, and the networks have announced their fall schedules. I didn't feel like reading some 1,000-word piece about the nuances of all the timeslot swaps and counterprogramming attempts. I just wanted to see what's going to be on and when. It took me a while to find just that, so I figured I would put the link here in case you're interested in it. This shows ABC's lineup, and right underneath the headline are links to the other networks' schedules. (A grid-style overview is here.)

One cool thing I read about Lost is that there will be no reruns next season. There will be seven straight new episodes in the fall, then it will go on hiatus while a new show takes its slot. When Lost reappears, it will have all new episodes until the end of the season. That rocks! Everyone should do that!

As for what new shows I might want to watch, I usually wait for Entertainment Weekly's Fall TV Preview issue. But these shows sound interesting at first glance:
Heroes (NBC Monday at 9)
The Nine (ABC Wednesday at 10)
Six Degrees (ABC Thursday at 10)
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (NBC Thursday at 9)

The first three are all pretty similar, and very Lost-like. Who knows if they will be any good. I am hesitant to become attached to hour-long dramas that are doomed to be cancelled. But I think that's why things tank so quickly; no one wants to be the guinea pig. None of the dramas I currently watch were on my schedule right from the start. I caught up with season 1 of Lost on DVD, which is not a bad way to watch TV, if you ask me. No commercials, first of all; secondly, you know you're golden for at least 22 episodes (no threat of the ax); but the best part is you don't have to wait a whole week to see the next episode! For a while I even contemplated canceling my cable and buying all the seasons of 24 on DVD. Surely that would keep me occupied for a few months. Then, on to Gilmore Girls, The OC, Nip/Tuck, etc. But then you lose the water-cooler cache. Yep, it's still all about peer pressure.