Let's Assess: Upfront Week & Season Finales

Ahh Upfront Week. Best described as the NFL Draft for TV geeks. This is time when we find out which new faces we'll be welcoming in the fall, which shows are returning and which shows have gone to the cancellation graveyard.

Luckily, a number of my favorite on-the-bubble shows managed to survive unscathed (Supernatural, Reaper, How I Met Your Mother, etc). My favorite network - ABC - managed to make me deliriously happy and furious at the same time (more on that in just a bit).

This fall and midseason we get brand spankin new shows from mad geniuses Joss Whedon (Dollhouse) and JJ Abrams (Fringe).

Monday nights and Thursday nights remain jam-packed. Apologies in advance to my poor DVR. Thank god I'm upgrading to a 100 hr recorder.

Visit the futoncritic.com for a comprehensive guide to the new fall schedule.

This coming week, we'll be bidding adieu to more of our favorite shows as they wrap us this odd, strike-affected season. My two favorite moments this week involved semi-bad (but completely entertaining) karaoke: Dean and Sam rocking out with a Bon Jovi sing-along on Supernatural -

"Bon Jovi rocks . . . sometimes." - umm correction boys, Bon Jovi totally rocks and I'm not ashamed to admit it!

and Brennan belting out "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" on Bones. Now if only that whole Booth getting shot by a psycho-stalker didn't ruin the moment.

Now, onto my love/hate towards ABC:

Reasons to love ABC:
- They came to the rescue of Scrubs! After years of promotional neglect from NBC, Scrubs gets a new home. Hopefully our friends at Sacred Heart will be treated right this time around.

- They gave Eli Stone a second chance:
~ The show improved every week; I’m actually a bit surprised that ABC showed all 13 episodes, someone over there really loves the show. Thank goodness that person appears to have some power over scheduling. Eli’s 2nd season will get a nice lead-in from Dancing with the Stars.
~ Why do I totally dig this show? It’s got heart. And Spy Daddy singing on a semi-regular basis. And they managed to win me over with a Veronica Mars shout-out. What’s not to love?

Reason (yes, that's singular) to hate ABC:
- They cancelled Men in Trees. Well what did they expect after moving it around 5123456 times? They could have at least kept it on Wednesdays @ 10, but noooo they decided to bring back a now-cancelled show (Women’s Murder Club) and shove Boston Legal into the MIT spot. Does that make any sense??