Tuesday
Bones
When: 8 p.m., Fox (premières Sept. 13)
Concept: Forensic anthropologist Emily Deschanel investigates crime scenes (including some cold cases) using cutting-edge scientific technology. She's good, but that doesn't keep her from clashing with FBI agent David Boreanaz. But will different kinds of sparks fly between them behind closed doors? (Answer: If the ratings are good, not until at least halfway through season three.)
Will it be any good? The viewing public seems to have a bottomless appetite for shows combining microscopes and murder, but Bones will have to offer something new in order to stand out.
Likely most memorable episode: Deschanel is baffled by remains that defy description, until Boreanaz, surrendering to a lifetime of typecasting, sighs and suggests they could belong to vampires.
Commander In Chief
When: 9 p.m., ABC (premières Sept. 27)
Concept: A woman in the White House? Sure, it doesn't sound so far-fetched as long as the little lady's serving dinner or cleaning the Oval Office. But Commander In Chief is about a woman President. Whoa. Geena Davis returns from whatever the hell it is she's been up to all these years to star as a chief executive who uses her terrifying Amazonian physique to intimidate the American public into electing her its first girl-President.
Will it be any good? That depends. Is ABC trying to soften viewers up for the concept of a Hillary Clinton presidency, or warn them away from one? It's hard to say which would be worse: a shrill political polemic, or the Vaseline-lens, Lifetime Channel-special sentiment showcased in the show's ads.
Likely most memorable episode: Davis' adorable, doe-eyed prepubescent daughter injects some much-needed drama into the show by running away to experience real life on her own, recapturing that highly profitable First Daughter/Chasing Liberty vibe.
My Name Is Earl
When: 9 p.m., NBC (premières Sept. 20)
Concept: Small-town nogoodnik Jason Lee wins the lottery and immediately gets hit by a car. Chastened, he decides to correct all the wrongs he's committed in his life.
Will it be any good? Hmm... Maybe. In bare description, this sounds like it could just as easily be the plot for a dreary Danish drama as an offbeat sitcom. The tremendously charismatic Lee should easily be able to carry his own show, however. And who's that lurking in the background? Why, it's Joe Dirt star Jaime Pressly and The Butterfly Effect's Ethan Suplee. Boo-yah! Also, the series was created by Gregory Thomas Garcia, one of the driving forces behind Yes, Dear. Boo-yah?
Likely most memorable episode: In an attempt to restart the 1980s' trend toward "very special" episodes, Lee and Suplee learn a valuable lesson when guest star Gordon Jump moves to town, opens a bicycle shop, and lures them to the back room with the promise of cartoons.
Sex, Love & Secrets
When: 9 p.m., UPN (premières Sept. 27)
Concept: Denise Richards heads up a cast of plastic hotties who swap partners and heartbreak in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Will it be any good? Did you hear Denise Richards talking last year about how she had to quit nursing her baby so she could get her boobs back in shape for a Playboy pictorial? Holy crap, do we ever hate Denise Richards. Odds are, America will too.
Likely most memorable episode: One of a circle of friends is killed at their 20th high-school reunion, and the survivors flash back to what in their shared pasts might have prompted murder. They start with the moment that Denise Richards was cast as Dr. Christmas Jones in The World Is Not Enough.
Supernatural
When: 9 p.m., WB (premières Sept. 13)
Concept: Two estranged brothers, still haunted by their mother's mysterious death, team up to track down their missing father, who believes his wife was killed by evil forces. Soon after visiting a California town plagued by unexplained deaths, they decide to take up the "family business," which involves crisscrossing the country in a '67 Chevy Impala, hunting down ghosts and creatures that would seem to exist only in legend.
Will it be any good? The WB clearly wants to recapture the magic of past hits like Charmed and Buffy The Vampire Slayer, but then again, so did Fox's Point Pleasant, which floundered even with Buffy alums on staff. Also, it's from the writer of Boogeyman...
Likely most memorable episode: Inundated with requests for their services, the brothers hire seasoned Ghostbuster Ernie Hudson, whose enthusiasm and blackness make up for his shortcomings in parapsychology.
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