TV's January thaw: After a bleak 2008, viewers can hope for a balmy new beginning

The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT) - The nation's TV critics gather this week in Los Angeles to see what goodies await them at the start of a new year, after a brutal 2008 when many of their newspaper colleagues lost their jobs, their winter meeting was canceled, and their pens dripped with venom because so many shows were so bad.

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On the equation's other side, the networks are set to present their wares at what's known as the Television Critics Association winter press tour, which begins Tuesday. Cable, in general, is whistling a happy tune, but the broadcasters find themselves in various states of desperation, some more sullen even than the critics.

Though the confab will lack the thrills and fun offered at the nearby theme park, everybody convening at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City hotel looks forward to brighter times beginning this week. Most of the critics really do like television, and cold January could be shaping up as a sunny new springtime on the tube.

Solid favorites are returning: "American Idol" and "24" on Fox, "Lost" on ABC, "The Closer" on TNT. Critics' favorites, including FX's compelling "Damages" and HBO's provocative "Big Love," wait in the wings. There's a greater supply of new shows on cable than usual, and several seem promising.

For three of the broadcasters, each down in the ratings in the neighborhood of 10 percent this fall (and that's a neighborhood where nobody wants to live), the robins and flowers can't return soon enough.

The critics' annual meeting in 2008 was a minor victim of the 100-day Hollywood writers strike, which ended in February. The strike caused chaos at the networks. CBS rallied quickly, enjoyed a fine fall, and will spend most of its time at the press tour crowing about it.

Trying to get back on track, ABC and Fox will preview a barrelful of new shows. Only one, Fox's "Lie to Me," is to start in January, but there's buzz about the network's "Dollhouse," from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer's" Joss Whedon, scheduled for next month. ABC's "The Unusuals," a semi-comedic cop drama starring Amber Tamblyn premiering in April, and "The Goode Family," a cartoon show from "King of the Hill's" Mike Judge tentatively set for March, are also already on the critics' alert lists.

After the worst ratings drop of all the networks, 11.9 percent through November (the most recent Nielsen Media Research figures available), NBC has the least ambitious network presentation schedule in press tour history _ other than in January 1982, when it boycotted completely, complaining that critics were impolite.

It plans to introduce exactly one new scripted series, and its top executives, perhaps fearing further incivility as their company's initials more and more seem to stand for Nothing But Crap, are nowhere on the agenda.

The network is also turning down a chance to put its own stamp on its own story, which promises to be a centerpiece of discussion at the press tour: the announced new Jay Leno show, weeknights at 10. Leno is not on the schedule, nor is Conan O'Brien, who's replacing him at 11:30 p.m. But CBS' Craig Ferguson will be around, to explain how he's been beating O'Brien recently in his current slot (if he can stop drooling long enough over the prospect of facing Jimmy Fallon, who takes over from O'Brien in March).

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Fallon, and a couple of low-ranking suits, will show up for NBC, unable to talk their way out of roles as cannon fodder for the critics.

The press tour walks a fine line between journalism and propaganda, as it has evolved primarily into a series of news conferences _ as many as 20 a day when the cable networks are in town _ featuring studio and network executives, producers, actors and TV newspeople. Including PBS and panels and studio visits arranged by the critics association itself, it has recently run about 17 days in summer, fewer in winter. The 2009 winter press tour runs from Tuesday through Jan. 16.

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Founded in 1979 to upgrade the journalistic professionalism of these gatherings, the Television Critics Association strives, and generally succeeds, to maintain the question-and-answer standards of similar mass interviews in other fields. Nonetheless, critics are continually surprised to find that the folks on absolutely every production are all just like a family, and that no actor has ever signed up for a show for any reason other than its magnificent script or marvelous cast and crew.

That's why there's a premium on separate one-on-one interviews _ or, more commonly, 10- or 11-on-one _ after the sessions, or in the hallways, or at nighttime parties where many of the actors and producers turn out.

Critics pay their own travel and hotel bills. Networks provide many of the meals, more to keep their audience captive than to impress palates with jumbo shrimp and juicy steaks, which went out in the early '90s, along with all-day open bars.

Things have gotten progressively less luxurious since the '70s, when Lew Grade flew a planeload of critics to London to flog a production, and critics frequently found bottles of booze in their hotel rooms. Fall and spring press tours at New York's Waldorf-Astoria were dropped in the '80s.

But the evening "star party" has remained a fixture. Most critics actually work at these events, getting whatever quotations and comments they can from the TV talent who can't resist a red carpet, copious cocktails and fancy food.

Among those who doubtless could resist are some of the bigger stars _ Kiefer Sutherland, for instance _ who feel it's their duty to attend anyway. Others are under contract to appear, and it's fun to watch them breeze in for whatever minimum time is stipulated, trying desperately, usually assisted by minions misidentified as publicists, to avoid the gaggle of reporters intent on fresh quotes, before being spirited away.

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But things are tough this season, and even though they need all the ink they can get, ABC and NBC will have no party. The critics association is still trying to negotiate for some sort of informal, info-generating gatherings.

Newspapers and magazines are hurting, too. Yet the number of critics and reporters registered for the event, 127, is only 10 fewer than signed up for the last winter press tour in 2007. As representatives of print media have declined, the number of Web-site wunderkinds has burgeoned.

They too are waiting breathlessly to see if the hubbub leads to an early spring _ or if the shadows of impending failures send the TV groundhog scurrying back down deep into his hole.

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PROMISE, AS WELL AS PESKY 'REALITY'

An unusual flurry of established and promising series arrives on TV this month, along with a notably large batch of the usual skeevy and derivative reality shows.

NBC came late to the dance party Sunday night with a show featuring international terpsichore, while CBS is propping Regis Philbin back up in an updated revival of "Password." ABC on Mondays has another beauty show _ with a twist! _ following the latest "Bachelor" incarnation. Joe Rogan (CBS) and Howie Mandel (NBC) both struggle for an audience with "Candid Camera" updates.

Wouldn't it be nice if the Louisiana death-dealers who are the subject of A&E's new "The Exterminators" (starts Wednesday at 10:30 p.m.) could wipe all this garbage out, along with the usual rats, roaches and giant snakes? Or if the folks on ABC's "Homeland Security USA" (Tuesday at 8 p.m.) could prevent them from getting into the country in the first place?

But why dwell on the dreck when so many good series, new and returning, are lined up on the launch pad. Here's a selective list:

"Scrubs" (premieres Tuesday). Rescued from NBC, one of the good sitcoms of this decade returns on ABC.

"Nip/Tuck" (Tuesday, FX). The maladjusted surgeons return, rotting on the inside while they try to make their patients look better on the outside.

"Damages" (Wednesday, FX). Glenn Close and legal company, joined by client William Hurt, embark on season two in their cruel, complex, compelling world.

"Flashpoint" (Friday, CBS). Further adventures of the Strategic Response Unit in this Canadian series that was a summer Stateside hit.

"24" (Sunday, Fox). Tony Almeida's back from the dead, as Jack starts his seventh day of desperado derring-do, justifying his harsh techniques to congressional pantywaists.

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"American Idol" (Jan. 13, Fox). La, la. Nyah, nyah. It's still TV's No. 1 show. By a lot.

"The Beast" (Jan. 15, A&E). Taking a break from its descent into reality-show hell, A&E premieres this sharp drama starring Patrick Swayze as an enigmatic, violent FBI agent who takes on a rookie partner.

"Battlestar Galactica" (Jan. 16, SciFi). Not your average spaceship show, this futuristic masterpiece begins its final season.

"Friday Night Lights" (Jan. 16, NBC). Having already appeared on satellite, season three of this series about small-town Texas life opens its episodes to regular folks.

"The United States of Tara" (Jan. 18, Showtime). Toni Collette's character has multiple personalities, and her family, including husband John Corbett, has to deal. "Juno's" Diablo Cody wrote the pilot of this black comedy. Steven Spielberg is another exec producer.

"Big Love" (Jan. 18, HBO). Instead of one wife with lots of personalities, Mormon Bill Pullman has lots of wives with single personalities. That makes his life tough, too, in this splendid, often overlooked drama-comedy.

"Flight of the Conchords" (Jan. 18, HBO). The New Zealand singing duo and their show may be the funniest thing on TV.

"Lie to Me" (Jan. 21, Fox). On CBS' "The Mentalist," handsome Simon Baker sees things that others don't. Fox executives see "The Mentalist" as the hottest new show in a couple of years, hence this new one, in which handsome Tim Roth detects the truth through body language that's invisible to others.

"Lost" (Jan. 21, ABC). Back to the island for our intrepid worthies, who are just as confused, but not as excitedly so, as the audience.

"The Closer" (Jan. 26, TNT). Kyra Sedgwick returns to badger another round of sorry saps in cable's most popular drama.

"Trust Me" (Jan. 26, TNT). This promising dramedy pairs Eric McCormack ("Will & Grace") and Tom Cavanagh ("Ed") as best friends who work in an ad agency. Gee, wonder where they got that idea?

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Jonathan Storm: jstorm@phillynews.com

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© 2009, The Philadelphia Inquirer.