Fall 2007 Television - What's Hot and What's Not List

#1 CBS Kid Nation
#2 NBC Bionic Woman
#3 The CW Gossip Girl
#4 CBS The Big Bang Theory
#5 The CW Reaper
#6 CBS Moonlight
#7 CBS Cane
#8 NBC Chuck
#9 ABC Private Practice
#10 ABC Caveman

Futon Critic promotes these following 5 shows as being the breakaway hits;

#1 ABC Chuck
#2 ABC Dirty Sexy Money
#3 ABC Eli Stone
#4 ABC Pushing Daisies
#5 The CW Reaper

Tubewad has this for it's top 4 Primetime shows;

#1 NBC Bionic Woman
#2 NBC The IT Crowd
#3 ABC Carpoolers
#4 ABC Chuck

This is just a sampling of what everybody is guessing at and estimating for the top hits. A lot of critics are saying this season is going to be very poor pickings for network TV. For my 2 cents worth, I think this fall we are going to get a whole heck of a lot to choose from, and that there will be a few breakaway hits - here are my estimations and why I think these shows will make it.

#1 - NBC's The Bionic Woman - This show is a remake of the 1970's hit brought into modern development by David Eick - who SF fans will remember as one of the guiding forces behind The Sci-Fi Channel's successful remake of Battlestar Galactica. Taking the concept of Jamie Summers suffering a terrible accident and having her legs, an arm, and eye replaced by bionics and then seeing the character evolve and learn how to maintain both her sanity and her normal life looks to be a very interesting concept. With British Actress Michelle Ryan from EastEnders being cast as Jamie, this show could be as much a runaway success as Heroes was for NBC last year.

#2 - The CW's Reaper - A new concept in dramedy, Reaper has the main lead finding out on his 21st birthday that his parents sold his soul to the Devil. And now the Devil wants his due. So our intrepid hero is tasked to hunt down and recover escaped souls and return them to hell. With Kevin Smith directing the first episode, and a cast that includes Ray Wise from Twin Peaks as the Devil and Bret Harrison from The O.C. as the intrepid soul-hunter Sam this show has the earmarks to be a hilarious ride, as long as they can keep it fresh and amusing. The CW needs a real hit, last year was a very sad year for the merged network and it does need help badly. Hopefully, with Kevin Smith helping out, Reaper can be the hit this network needs.

#3 - Fox's Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares - Taking a page from the BBC, Fox has now added a new Ramsay Rant show to it's roster, this time in Primetime. Kitchen Nightmares is a successful series from the British Isles that has the no tolerance Chef going to failing restaurants and showing them what is needed to turn them around and become moneymakers instead of money drains. Having watched Hell's Kitchen from the beginning, and enjoyed all the episodes of Kitchen Nightmares before and after HK aired, I feel that the American public may be ready for another Ramsay Rant. The only problem I can see is - are American Restaurants ready?

#4 - The CW's Gossip Girl - A sleeper script and pilot for a few years, Gossip Girl got picked up for this season on The CW. Cecily von Ziegesar wrote the book series that this TV show is based on, and once it got picked up, has become a show to be gossiped about quite a bit. Gossip Girl focuses on the kids that inhabit New York's rich private schools, and their rampant social life, full of 'who did what', 'with whom', and 'what were they wearing?'. Having Josh Schwartz from the O.C. on board as the director will give the show a solid anchorage as a possible conceptual replacement for that successful series. With Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, and Chase Crawford cast as the primary leads, this show may catch the attention of the 18-24 set and help to propel the CW back to where it wants to be as the network of the new generation.

#5 - Fox's K-Ville - A concept born of chaos and survival amid desperation rounds out this list. K-Ville is set in New Orleans during and immediately after Katrina struck the port city and devastated it. This show focuses on the police who stood their ground amid the total collapse of infrastructure and who refused to leave the city to the looters. Jonathan Lisco thought of the idea and has been given extraordinary permissions for the series. The actors and the show is allowed to use the actual design for the New Orleans police badge and stylistic symbols. Plus, during one of the many drive throughs Jonathan did, he spotted some graffiti that said 'K-ville' and took that to be the title. Fox is pushing hard for this series to success, given their track record, this could be another success for them. With Anthony Anderson and Cole Hauser cast as the two male Police leads, this series has some serious potential.

Time will tell for which shows will sink, and which will rise to the top. With the Fall season only a few short weeks away, everything will come out sooner than we think and success or failure will begin to be evident by early October. Let's hope we have a good Fall and lots of quality TV to enjoy.