Fox's year-round programming

The new summer programming that debuted this summer has been pretty horrendous and depressing. For example: Summerland (great shades of Young Americans, the Dawson's Creek spinoff that had Kate Bosworth; not good although I watch it - which is really not a meter of anything), the North Shore (blatant Las Vegas rip-off, but much, much worse), Method & Red (I've heard it's weak), & Quintuplets (Mr. Boyfriend swears by the comic genius of Andy Richter, which I do believe, but I hear the show is still um, finding its legs).

I don't think these new shows are getting very good ratings, and I'm worried that Fox and all the other networks will decide to throw in the towel on year-round programming, which is in fact a good idea, but one that they didn't execute well on this year. There's no evidence that summer programming will always bust, as proved by Survivor, last summer's debut of the O.C., and the various original cable programming (The Shield, Monk, the Dead Zone, Nip/Tuck, etc.). I'm dying for some decent TV, but the networks are being terribly tight-fisted about giving me what I want. In the next two weeks, I think I have perhaps six hours that TiVo will be recording for me. But that does leave me time to read some of the books that have been getting dusty on my bookshelf.

Also, Elisabeth Rohm, the ADA on Law & Order had decided to leave the show after 13 episodes next season. She was the main reason I stopped watching L & O, so perhaps now is the time to go back to watching! Now if only Sam Waterson could tone down the brow-beating... But sadly, no more Jerry Orbach - he was a fixture in my L & O universe, so it will be very odd to watch the show without him. I wonder if Jesse Martin has negotiated in his contract to get the quippy one-liners that always lead right into the opening credits...