With the temperature dropping and a new school year starting, it can only mean that summer is coming to an end — and with it, the summer television season. The warmer months are traditionally times when TV viewers are looking for lighter fare, and cable channels step up to the plate while broadcast networks offer mostly cheap-to-produce reality programs. This summer was no exception, but like any TV season, there were some notable hits and misses — and the Daily has the rundown:
Hits: USA has always been a reliable network for delivering entertaining summer programming, and this year proved that their "Characters Welcome" slogan is no fluke. Freshman series "Covert Affairs," starring Piper Perabo as a rookie spy for the CIA, drew big ratings from the start and has only continued to improve. Creatively, the show is a bit lazy and clichéd, especially with its serialized elements, but the charm of the cast bolsters even the silliest plot and has helped secure an early second season renewal.
Returning series "Burn Notice," "Royal Pains," "White Collar" and "Psych" also found success this summer. Although their numbers are down a bit from last year, with "Psych" especially starting to show its age, the strong lineup of light, character-driven procedurals earned USA a top spot in the summer ratings race.
Among other returning series, HBO's "True Blood" grew in viewership from last summer and is the first major hit for the pay cable network since the "Sex and the City" and "The Sopranos" era. Fellow critical favorite, AMC's "Mad Men," fresh off its third consecutive Emmy win for Outstanding Drama Series, also posted ratings gains over last season and is currently mining the rich creative material of Don Draper's (Jon Hamm) post-divorce life. On the other side of the coin, "Jersey Shore," MTV's smash hit from last winter, returned with more than five million viewers following The Situation, Snooki and the rest of the crew to Miami Beach.
Several new series also made their mark on the summer TV landscape. ABC Family's soapy guilty pleasure "Pretty Little Liars" set ratings records for the network, and critics have lauded "Huge" for its honest look at teens with weight issues. TNT had two hits with newcomers "Rizzoli & Isles" and "Memphis Beat," with the former consistently ranking as one of the week's most-watched programs. FX's "Louie," a fascinating blend of stand-up and vignettes from comedian Louis C.K., has already been renewed for a second season.
Misses: Not every show can be a winner, even during the summer when ratings expectations are lower. This was especially true with the broadcast networks' scripted offerings, which almost universally failed. The networks often get criticized for scheduling nothing but mindless reality fare during the off-season, so they drew attention to themselves at the end of the spring by promising a summer full of new scripted series. The commitment to scripted content is a good one, but unfortunately it doesn't mean a lot when none of it is high quality.
Although ABC was barely able to put down police procedural "Rookie Blue" in the hit column, it wasn't as lucky with "The Gates" and "Scoundrels." Despite an impressive cast, "Scoundrels" was an immediate flop, and "The Gates" failed to find an audience even with its appealing vampires-meets-"Desperate Housewives" concept. NBC and CBS also stumbled with low-budget, no-name dramas "Persons Unknown" and "The Bridge," respectively, which seemed to go off the air as soon as they began.
Fox avoided any major catastrophes, but made a risky move in scheduling quirky freshman cop show "The Good Guys" for both a summer run and a slot on Fridays in the fall. The action-comedy from "Burn Notice" creator Matt Nix, starring Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks, never really grabbed audiences, but it currently retains its spot on the fall schedule.
On the cable side, Bravo's "Top Chef," usually a solid and welcome summer reality offering, had its weakest season to date. Not only was it lacking flavor in its contestants and Washington, D.C.-based challenges, but it also lost roughly 20 percent of its audience from the previous summer. AMC's conspiracy drama "Rubicon" also struggled, despite its network pedigree (in addition to "Mad Men," AMC airs critical darling "Breaking Bad" as well). The show has demonstrated strong creative potential, but is hovering at dangerous ratings levels, leaving the possibility of a second season up in the air.
Cable seemed to be the big winner this summer, in terms of both new and returning shows. With the fall TV season just around the corner, the broadcast networks should be happy to get the spotlight back, even though they'll certainly have their share of hits and misses once again.
