T Dog's Six Pack: The new season so far

Since we're three weeks into the new fall season, here's how things are shape up in TV land in this edition of T Dog's Six Pack:

Three Up

NFL Football. The quality of play is down, but ratings are up? It's true - viewers are tuning in droves to NFL Football with CBS, Fox, ESPN and NBC all posting year-to-year gains. But celebrate now, my friends: With a possible lockout looming next year, the party may be over.

Local newscasts. With interest in next's month's elections - and next year's mayoral race at a fever pitch, viewers are tuning in to Chicago's local newscasts - even at 4:30 a.m. in the morning, reversing a years-long ratings decline. In September, at least three of Chicago's late newscasts (including the 9 p.m. entries on WGN-TV and WFLD-TV) experienced ratings growth vs. a year ago.


Hawaii Five-O. Reviews have been mixed, but the revival of the 1968-80 of the sun-and-surf crime drama is the only new show to land in Nielsen's Top 20.

Three Down. Way Down.


Network TV's new shows. Viewers tuning in to a rather mediocre Bears team, tabloid material on Dancing With The Stars, and to local newscasts' nightly orgy of crime and mayhem, but it appears they're shunning new fare. And worst, veteran shows - aside from Dancing With The Stars and Survivor - are losing audience. The low point came last Thursday (Sept. 30) when MTV's Jersey Shore beat both CBS' The Mentalist and ABC's Private Practice in adults 18-49. Obviously, the hottest trend this fall is the trainwreck.


Lonestar and My Generation get the ax...fast. You know your show sucked when it got canceled before the Cubs and White Sox played their final games of the season.

The Event. Oh no... not again! Another serialized drama in the vein of Lost that's going to be over-analyzed all season long. The real "event" ended its six-year run last May.