Bring Out Your (TV) Dead

Another season of the LaPlaca Open, the Internet's best TV dead pool, recently kicked off (so to speak). The premise: pick 10 shows that you think will come a-cropper by the end of the 2005-06 season. You get 20 points per show that tanks, with a bonus based on ranking (top show gets you 10 more points, down to one for your last show).

So who did I pick?

10 - Will & Grace - A slam-dunk given that its in its last season. Earning me 30 points will be the best thing this show has ever done for me.

9 - Monday Night Football - An entry I never would have expected at this point last year, but its move to ESPN next season opens the door for more cheap points.

8 - Unconceivable - NBC's fertility clinic show seems ripe for the cancelling: it's on Friday, has a premise that seems a little too specialized (how many cases of infertility can you follow before things get dull?), and hasn't gotten much by way of positive press from the day it was announced as being on the schedule.

It's also up against Numb3rs and 20/20, which may be problematic even though it's probably the most light-hearted choice of the three.

7 - Rodney - I'll give a shiny nickel to anyone who can tell me the network, the day and time this airs, and who plays the title character WITHOUT looking it up.

6 - Hot Properties - I may be stretching here, given that it has some well known cast members (Gail O'Grady, Nicole Sullivan) and is on ABC's TGIF, which seems pretty tolerant of crap (hello, Hope and Faith). But word is that this show is just awful, so it was hard to pass up.

5 - The Night Stalker - This show was a good idea in its time (mid-1970s): a reporter investigates the unknown, supernatural, and just plain creepy while showing some gumption and often being more lucky than good. The sense I get from the new show is that it'll be moodier, which may take some of the fun out of it. Not to mention that the supernatural became almost passe with The X Files, and is already looking a little thin this season what with the two oceanic alien shows and the WB show actually called Supernatural.

It doesn't help that this is going up against CSI, The Apprentice, and the much-hyped Fox show Reunion.

4 - Related - A show about four sisters that tries to rip off Sisters and Sex in the City simultaneously, and from what I've heard does neither well. It's also up against Lost, E-Ring, and Veronica Mars. I'm also not sure that One Tree Hill is the most natural lead-in; you'd think Gilmore Girls would make more sense... until you realize viewers would start making comparisons.

3 - Threshold - One of the two oceanic alien shows in my top ten, it does have a cast you've likely heard of (Charles S. Dutton, Carla Gugino, Brent Spiner), but I don't see this working so well given that Friday nights have been hostile towards such shows in the past, and CBS doesn't have much of a track record with the genre. It's also got another new show, The Ghost Whisperer, as a lead-in. That show stars Jennifer Love Hewitt.

How did I not put that in my entry?

2 - Surface - NBC's entry into the watery ETs genre, it's facing competition from comedies (the CBS block and Fox, which is hoping a move of Arrested Development and the new Kitchen Confidential will fare well) and the perpetual viewing machine that is 7th Heaven. What I've heard of the show suggests that it's a bit sprawling, so viewers may not stay tuned in if there are a lot of loose ends with plot and character.

1 - Out of Practice - It's part of the CBS Monday night sitcom lineup, which suggests it'll do well, but I've read some awful reviews. It could come around, but CBS has two mid-season sitcoms - starring Jenna Elfman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, respectively - that could step in should this show about doctors not pan out.

It also has Paula Marshall in the cast, which is like the kiss of death right there.