Fall TV's hits and turkeys

 

"We got our backend!!"

This week, the Fox hostage-negotiator drama “Standoff” will do something that many other new fall shows this week won't do: air a new episode.

  It won't be an especially good episode. It certainly didn't change my opinion of “Standoff,” whose two leads give both the FBI and sexual tension a bad name. And yet, it is still on network TV, two months after the regular season began.

  Other shows were not so lucky. Viewers tuning in for the next installment in “Six Degrees,” what few were left anyway, found a “Desperate Housewives” rerun substituted at the last minute. “Kidnapped” was downgraded from Wednesdays to Saturdays, until NBC finally concluded it couldn't find an audience if it had a Sherpa. Wednesday was especially cruel, with only one of six new shows that debuted on that night still there.

  Yes, I did say in September that the quality of this season's crop was well above average. But I also wondered out loud where viewers would find the time for all these fine new shows. Now, with the November ratings sweep half over, it's become clear that some had it and some didn't. Here's how they fared.

As usual, all times Central.

  WINNERS

  “Heroes” (8 p.m. Mondays, NBC). A page-turner from the start, this fantasy serial structured like a comic book and filled with fresh, relatable, everyday superheroes was destined for greatness. It did not disappoint, soaring to No. 1 among all new shows.

  “Jericho” (7 p.m. Wednesday, CBS). It's been hard for CBS to grow hits on this night, but an apocalyptic drama set on the high plains of Kansas has delivered an impressive yield. “Jericho” has gotten better by the week, with one of the best new characters on TV in Mr. Hawkins (Lennie James), the secretive agent who seemed to know about the coming attacks.

  “Ugly Betty” (7 p.m. Thursdays, ABC). The fall's most pleasant surprise: A show stuck in an impossible time period charms its way into viewers' living rooms. The Colombian import has ripened nicely this fall, with Salma Hayek (a producer on the show) a welcome addition in a guest role this month.

  “30 Rock” (8 p.m. Thursdays, NBC, beginning Nov. 30). Once treated like a second banana to “Studio 60,” the Tina Fey-led sitcom has earned a starring role, recently upgrading to the network's storied Thursday night lineup. While most critics rave about NBC's Emmy-winning “The Office,” I'll take the more conventional “30 Rock” any day, with its rapid-fire pacing and a terrific tandem in Fey and Alec Baldwin as her fatuous boss.

  “Friday Night Lights” (7 p.m. Tuesdays, NBC). With the network committing to more episodes last week and the full faith of critics still behind it, I'm putting the high school football drama in the W column. The slow start, I think, is because viewers had to adjust to something that was sold like the feel-good “Hoosiers” but is moodier and more complex. (Episodes are online at NBCRewind.com.)

  “Shark” (9 p.m. Thursdays, CBS). It's been billed as the James Woods hour, but worth noting is how nicely his relationship with the knockout D.A. (Jeri Ryan) has evolved.

  “Men in Trees” (9 p.m. Thursdays, ABC, beginning Nov. 30). See, I told you Anne Heche could act. And with megahit “Grey's Anatomy” as its new lead-in, this dramedy about a mixed-up gal in manly Alaska may finally find its audience.

  “Brothers and Sisters” (9 p.m. Sundays, ABC). Rachel Griffiths has emerged as the surprise star of this huge ensemble soap. (Why is Sally Field always whining?) Parked behind “Desperate Housewives,” this can't-miss show hasn't.

  LOSERS

  “Smith,” “Justice” and “The Nine.” One was about outlaws, another was about victims, the third about lawyers. And among them there wasn't a single character to root for. You wanted to hang a big poster in the production trailers where these shows were made: It's the likeability, stupid. Likeable characters are what separate hits from duds. But it seems not everyone in the TV business has learned that.

  “Twenty Good Years” and “Happy Hour.” The long-hoped-for revival of the sitcom isn't going to happen so long as networks keep putting DOA comedies like these on the air.

  “Runaway.” This once-promising serial about a family on the lam ran away and hid on the CW's lineup. Replacing “Everwood” with this dud typifies what CW executives have done wrong with their new network.

  TOO SOON TO TELL

  “The Class” (7:30 p.m. Mondays, CBS) and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” (9 p.m. Mondays, NBC). These two shows have the full support of their networks after two months, and I don't know why. Neither has done much in the ratings (though “Studio 60,” according to industry reports, will soon get a new time slot where it won't be steamrolled by “CSI: Miami”). All I know is that I want about half the cast on each show to just go away. Yes, I'm talking about you, Matthew Perry of “Studio 60” … and take Annoying Evangelical Woman and your wafer-thin backstory with you.

  “Help Me Help You” (8:30 p.m. Tuesdays, ABC). “Dancing With the Stars” helped this comedy, starring Ted Danson as a shrink who's a fink, to a big helping of audience. But we won't know its true fate until early 2007 when it's paired with “The Knights of Prosperity” (my pick as the funniest new show of the year).

  “Til Death” (7 p.m. Thursdays, Fox) and “Vanished” (7 p.m. Fridays, Fox; full episodes of “Vanished” and “Til Death” at Fox.com) and “The Game” (8:30 p.m. Mondays, CW). I liked these shows when I screened them. They had appealing actors and good writing. Unfortunately, I haven't seen them since -- and, according to the Nielsens, neither have you.