TV fans all over the country are gearing up for the return of their favorite shows that left them hanging at the end of their May season finales. In addition to the returning shows, the networks are going to be releasing new television shows to get viewers’ attention. Some new shows are looking great and generating a lot of buzz for their respective networks, such as ABC’s highly anticipated comedy ‘Modern Family’ and CBS’s highly buzzed about new ‘NCIS’ spinoff, ‘NCIS: Los Angeles.’

With the new television season starting this month a lot of shows have already premiered, like the highly awaited remake of ‘Melrose Place’ this past Tuesday (with lower-than-spectacular viewership). The ‘Twilight’ look-alike drama ‘The Vampire Diaries’ debuted Thursday night with 4.9 million viewers, qualifying it as The CW’s highest-rated series premiere in the network’s history, and Fox’s long-awaited ‘Glee’ enjoyed a nice 7.3 million viewers Wednesday night.

ABC:

The network premiering the most shows this season is ABC with a total of nine. It has some good shows to watch out for, including the aforementioned Wednesday night comedy ‘Modern Family,’ premiering Sept. 23 at 9 p.m., and ‘Cougar Town,’ starring Courtney Cox premiering after at 9:30 p.m. Another ABC show to watch out for is ‘FlashForward,’ a drama that follows the lives of people who lose two minutes and 17 seconds of their lives and then try to figure out if they want to try to change those pivotal minutes or embrace them.

NBC:

NBC, who is surrendering five important hours a week to air ‘The Jay Leno Show’ Mon.-Fri. at 10 p.m., is worth watching just to see the great guest stars that the network wanted Jay Leno to have. In his first week, he will host Jerry Seinfeld, Tom Cruise, Halle Berry, Robin Williams and Miley Cyrus, with musical guests Jay-Z, Kanye West and Rihanna performing at the first show. ‘The Jay Leno Show’ premieres Monday, Sept. 14 at 10 p.m. ‘Community,’ a new show about a man who returns to community college after his law school degree has been revoked, stars Joel McHale from ‘The Soup’ and Chevy Chase in his first regular TV role since he left ‘Saturday Night Live’ in 1976. ‘Community’ premieres Thursday, Sept. 17 at 9:30 and will remain in that timeslot until Oct. 8, when it will move to its regular time of 8 p.m. on Thursdays. ‘Trauma,’ which revolves around young first responders who report to accident scenes in San Francisco, CA., debuts Sept. 28 at 9 p.m.

CBS:

With CBS always having a stable schedule, the network doesn’t really need to have an extensive programming slate in the fall With five new shows total – four first-time series and NBC’s former ‘Medium,’ which CBS rescued from cancellation over the summer – the shows burning up the buzz charts for CBS are ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’ and ‘The Good Wife,’ starring Julianna Margulies and Chris Noth. Both Tuesday night shows join the mega hit ‘NCIS’ on Sept. 22. ‘Accidentally on Purpose,’ starring Jenna Elfman, premiering Monday, Sept. 21, and ‘Three Rivers,’ debuting Sunday, Oct. 4 at 9 p.m., will probably be modest hits but nothing special to be on the lookout for.

FOX:

Since FOX has already premiered ‘Glee,’ the only other worthwhile show to focus on is the ‘Family Guy’ spinoff, ‘The Cleveland Show,’ which is guaranteed to be a hit. The other comedy, ‘Brothers,’ starring former NFL player Michael Strahan, is not worth sitting home on a Friday night and watching. ‘The Cleveland Show’ will debut Sunday, Sept. 27 at 8:30pm. ‘Brothers’ is so bad that I’m not going to even mention the premiere date.

jawalk05@syr.edu

Published on September 13, 2009 at 12:00 pm