The Network to Beat in 2006-07

CBS, of course. NBC might actually come in second,

Casey McDonald's Guidance Counsellor, Ian J. Ball...

Duh.
(You wasted a post on that?!)

Casey McDonald's Guidance Counsellor, Ian J. Ball...

Bwa ha ha ha!

That's what I love about you WQ! - Who says you don't have a future in
comedy!!

Steven L....

By "of course," you're assuming that the public won't grow tired of cop
procedurals any time soon?

Sooner or later, that genre has to reach the end of its cycle, given how
over-represented it is now. Especially on CBS.

but not a very close second at all. It may be nip and
tuck between it and ABC, with ABC probably losing
more often than winning second place spots. ABC
right now continues to do absolutely miserably with its
summer lineup and as fewer and fewer viewers tune into
it, it loses out on having some kind of a viable visible
platform for any of its on-air promos for new shows.
Will viewers even want to care enough to return to ABC
in the fall in the same numbers as they did last fall? I
don't get the feeling that there's much for them to return
to. The problem with ABC's fall lineup is that it's way
too female-slanted. Except for Tuesday's new sitcoms
and Saturday's College football, I don't see any other
hard core male-skewing shows on the net. I mean, I
love women, but there's only so much of them I can take
in a given week, then it's like, gimme some testosterone
entertainment quick before I go bonkers. So I think
ABC's programming has an Achille's heel with its femme
focus and the loss of male viewers will negatively impact
on the net's numbers. Meanwhile, FOX will probably be
nipping at the heels of both NBC and ABC, but typically,
more so throughout mid-season than in the fall. As for
CW, it will barely get its nose above water, which is
slightly better than UPN and WB having had theirs just
under water. Then there's My Network TV - yeah, well,
so what about it?

Predicting the fall average for the nets between
September and end of December:

ABC - 6.1 [was 6.7 in '05]
CBS - 8.7 [was 8.4 in '05]
NBC - 6.3 [was 6.0 in '05]
FOX - 5.0 [was 5.0 in '05]
CW - 3.0 [UPN 2.3, WB 2.2 in '05]
MNT - 1.1 [My NetworkTV]

That's my guess.