Series Premieres And Season Debuts – Week of October 6-12, 2008

We're pretty much through with the bulk of the series premieres and virtually all of the season debuts. In fact, we're getting ratings results for a lot of the shows that don't necessarily look good for some shows. It's early yet, but apparently shows that didn't come back after the strike are looking at lower ratings than shows that did offer a few new episodes. Shows like Chuck, Heroes, Life, Dirty Sexy Money and Pushing Daisies seem to be having problems. Hopefully some of these shows – particularly the ones on NBC – will be given a chance to rebuild their audience. Chuck and Life in particular are light years ahead of most of the shows that NBC is offering under the Ben Silverman regime (please people, watch Life this Monday and Friday – I love that show).

Thursday

The only new shows are on Thursday night. CBS has the season premiere of the original (accept no substitutes – at least from Florida) CSI. The big focus will be on solving Warwick's murder, which will in turn lead to the eventual departure of Grissom. The premiere has a special appearance from Jorja Fox as Sarah Sidle.

CBS also has the series debut of Eleventh Hour based on the British series of the same name. The series stars Rufus Sewell as Dr. Jacob Hood, the FBI's leading scientific advisor who is called in to deal with events where science is being misused. Ashley Jenson plays his FBI bodyguard/assistant Rachel Young. The first episode deals with human cloning.

NBC has the series debut of Kath & Kim, the American adaptation of the Australian hit series, starring Molly Shannon as Kath Day, Selma Blair as her spoiled princess daughter Kim, who has recently split from her new husband Craig, played by Mikey Day. Kath's brand new fiancé Phil Knight is played by John Michael Higgins. In the first episode, Kath's romance with Phil is hampered by the arrival of Kim who has just walked out on Craig.

NBC also has the series debut of Saturday Night Live Thursday Weekend Update which is pretty much self-explanatory. Hopefully they can come up with a half hour that's as good as the Tina Fey as Sarah Palin cold opens on the Saturday Night Live mother ship... but I doubt it.

Finally ABC brings on the totally recast American version of the BBC series Life On Mars. The show has been totally recast and even relocated from the original pilot. The show being moved from Los Angeles to New York, while the only cast hold-over from the pilot is Jason O'Mara as Sam Tyler who has gone from 2008 to 1973 after a severe auto accident. Is he in a coma or really travelling through time? The rest of the cast includes Michael Imperioli, Gretchen Mol, Lisa Bonet, Jonathon Murphy and Harvey Keitel.