The January 2007 Television Bonanza

The month of January in 2007 is a great start for television to kick off the New Year if you are a coach potato. New hit shows come to the television screen and last year's hit shows return as well. Here's the rundown and weekly hit shows that I think are the best to watch.

The Apprentice: Donald Trump is back and so are the high expectations for this show in his sixth season the air. This season, Donald Trump brings his show to California where he plans on assembling two teams worthy of grasping the attention of the American public. Donald Trump hopes that a change of venue and a great cast will change his low ratings last year. Only 9.6 million people watched his show weekly compared to the 21 million ratings he got from Season 1. Donald Trump has been getting a lot of publicity lately in part because of his verbal assault on Rosie O'Donnell in the media. Trump has already come out with the commercials and previews for this season of the Apprentice. The best commercial, which I think is adorable, has a small child building a sand castle at the beach. The child looks up and to see a huge sand castle several feet high in the air. From behind the sand castle pops out Donald Trump who encourages to keep building to get to the top. Then the segment cuts to Trump's Season 6 of the Apprentice in California. California will also bring new companies and tasks for Donald Trump to give to these eager businessmen, all vying for a chance to work for Trump. The Donald is also hoping that the presence of his daughter Ivanka, who is gorgeous and intelligent, will spark a new interest in the show after Trump fired Caroline for being too absorbed by her ego and not available when Trump needed her.

Prison Break: Prison break momentarily went off the air and had a Season finale that wasn't really a finale. As it turns out, Prison break is back right where it left off and while viewers may decrease because of new shows on television, Prison break will still get a respectable size audience, depending on what nights during the week it airs.

24: Jack Bauer, aka Kiefer Sutherland is back for Season 6 of 24. We last left off from Season 5 with the plot of Jack Bauer being taken into custody and being kidnapped by the Chinese on a boat to Shanghai. Jack Bauer is beaten and bloodied and the Chinese want information from him. Audrey notices that Jack Bauer has been mugged at the end of Season 5 by his colleagues do not know who has taken Jack Bauer hostage or where he is headed. It should be an interesting season of 24 as the show seems to get better and better. Kiefer Sutherland won his first award for best actor last year from Season 5 of 24.

American Idol: One of America's favorite shows is back. American Idol continues to get huge ratings and viewers on a weekly basis. The show truly is the American dream as it tracks contestants who love to sing from small towns and big cities as they try and make it big in Hollywood on a live stage in front of a national audience. The remarkable thing about most of the American Idol winners is that most of them do not have long or big careers. The only American Idol star to make it big is Kelly Clarkson. Fantasia Burrino has disappeared as well as Ruben Studard. Clay Aiken has had some record sales despite being the runner up that year to Ruben Studard. The rock and roll guy you never hear about anymore and wit the exception of the Orange Bowl halftime show by Taylor hicks, he didn't have one single big time performance or hit.

Dirt: This is a new FX television show starring Courtney Cox who hasn't had anything big on the television screen since her days on the hit show "Friends" where she made her claim to fame. This show DIRT is about a gossip magazine that she runs and is the editor. However, reviews for the show have not been kind and from what I have read, the show does not appeal to a wide audience and will have difficulty competing with the other big time shows on the air coming out this January.

Knights of Propriety: This new show that just came out on NBC on Wednesdays did not have much publicity and advertising coming into the show. The show was considered to be funny but when I watched it for the first time, it wasn't hilarious at all. It did have some laughs but not enough to keep me watching. The first episode featured Mick Jagger with a plot by the main characters that are poor to rob him.