Beginning in September, we had a slew of new television series air on the major free-to-air networks. Those series were…

• Currently Airing / viewers / Fantasy Stock value(TVBux$)
• Big Day / 6.35 / $17.47
• Help Me To Help You / 8.9 down to 5.19 / $14.00
• 1 vs 100 / 11.4 down to 9.06 / $10.77
• 3 lbs / 6.8 rising to 7.95 / $12.09
• 30 Rock / 5.4 rising to 6.8 / $18.06
• Daybreak / 7.6 down to 3.9 / $13.73
• Standoff / 9.6 down to 3.3 / $13.49
• The Class / 7 rising to 7.9 / $29.75
• All of Us / 1.7 rising to 3.1 / $8.78
• Ugly Betty / 12.2 down to 9.5 / $27.45
• ‘Til Death / 6.5 down to 2.9 / $18.33
• The Game / 1.2 rising to 2.5 / $7.69
• Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip / 10.3 down to 6.2 / $19.78
• Shark / 11.1 and holding at 11.2 / $39.82
• Men In Trees / 8.8 down to 2.1 and rising to 8.3 / $24.08
• Jericho / 7.7 rising to 8.8 / $26.44
• Heroes / 3.6 rising and holding strong at over 15 / $33.04
• Friday Night Lights / 5.3 and rising to 6.44 / $9.19
• Brothers and Sisters / 11 down to 10.47 / $23.33

• Cancelled or On Hiatus / ratings / Fantasy Stock value(TVBux$)
• 20 Good Years / 4.7 down to 3.4 / 14.59
• Six Degrees / 9.3 down to 5.4 / $16.00
• Show Me The Money / 8.9 down to 6.4 / $5.37
• Justice / 6.6 down to 4.4 / $13.40
• The Nine / 9.1 down to 4 / $14.64
• Kidnapped / 6 down to 2.6 / $14.45
• Smith / 7.8 down to 5.8 / $21.75
• Runaway / 1.8 down to 1.2 / $3.74
• Happy Hour / 5.1 down to 2.5 / $10.35
• Vanished / 5.5 down to 2 / $10.57

What we learned from this group of shows is that there were far too many new series that had a similar theme or too much like something that had aired before. Sadly for Fox – pretty much none of it’s New series’ survived the shakeup and they have had to go back to old standards in an attempt to lick their wounds and recover something before American Idol comes on in January.

The CW made a good effort but it just does not have the base numbers to compete and it’s normal series tend to overshadow the new ones, so it didn’t get much success out of new dramas either.

ABC had a bunch of losses also, but they have managed to recover.

CBS survived admirably and is going strong but now their major series are on hiatus, who knows what will happen in the next 6 weeks before their first-run series return.

NBC is struggling quietly and coping well against it’s two brethren, it’s series are pounding away at the viewers giving as much as they are taking.

Overall – even the cancelled series could have done well if they had been put up against different competition. It seems the programming directors for the major networks may not be as much in tune as we think they are, for some of the more promising new series faded with barely a whisper, while some that are low rating all the time are being bulked up to survive even in the face of falling ratings and viewership.

Once the Christmas hiatus is past we will revisit the current lineup and see how they are faring in nielson ratings against the major returning series such as Lost, 24 and American Idol.