Designated Survivor (ABC)
The consensus here in the office and in other offices that I've been spying on by hiding behind the color copier is that Kiefer Sutherland's Designated Survivor is THE new broadcast show people are looking forward to most. With a megawatt star at its center and the promise of Jack Bauer wearing glasses, we're expecting big numbers for its first episode.
Lethal Weapon (Fox)
It is in the U.S. Constitution that you must love Lethal Weapon, so Fox was pretty sharp to bring its TV-friendly premise—crazy cop meets about-to-retire cop and together they stop bad guys—to television. It certainly makes a gazillion-percent more sense than Fox's Minority Report.
Powerless (NBC)
It's about an insurance company that has to deal with all the concrete carnage superheroes leave behind after they're done "saving the world," so it doubles as an NBC-friendly workplace comedy and a new look at a dominating subgenre. That sounds like a potential hit to me, even if it isn't funny.
Kevin Can Wait (CBS)
On the other side of network comedy pushing boundaries and seeping into pop culture are those sitcoms that feel so old the laugh track is just an old man wheezing and coughing and then dying after the second act break. But comfort comedy is a big business, and CBS is the best at it. Whether you like it or not, Kevin James is a box-office champ and his last sitcom King of Queens was a sturdy performer among the CBS loyal, so there's little reason to believe that won't continue.
Midnight, Texas (NBC)
Yes, it's another vampire-dominant show even though vampires are so 2010 and we've all moved onto werehamsters or whatever it is housewives get themselves off on these days. But this comes from Charlaine Harris, the creator of HBO's True Blood, and it has that same playful-yet-horrifying look at the sexy supernatural but thrown into a sweltering Texas setting.
