What New Shows Have Got Pre-Season Hype?

Yahoo! put together a list of their top 10 hot new shows based on the most popular searches for shows that have not even aired yet. The list they came up with includes the following: CBS’s reality show “Kid Nation” at number one (starting Sept. 19), NBC’s “Bionic Woman” at number two (starting Sept. 26), The CW’s “Gossip Girl” at number three (starting Sept. 19), the CBS comedy “The Big Bang Theory” at number four (starting Sept. 24), The CW’s “Reaper” (starting Sept. 25), CBS’s vampire drama “Moonlight” (starting Sept. 28), and CBS’s Cuban-American family drama “Cane” starting Sept. 25.

Of these, only the new “Bionic Woman” and “Moonlight” really seem interesting, though it’s anyone’s guess how long the latter will last. Though, “Cane” could also be interesting with Jimmy Smits at the forefront. “The Bionic Woman,” however, has a lot of steam behind it, running on the name of the old 80s series starring Lindsay Wagner while bragging that this is for a new generation of fan and will be quite different: “This isn’t your mother’s Bionic Woman,” they’ve proclaimed in the behind-the-scenes previews.

While these are the ones Yahoo! patrons are the most curious about, there are a few missing from the list that have potential. Fox’s “K-Ville” (starting Sept. 17 at 9 p.m.) shows promise, especially with the interest in New Orleans as a setting and powerful set up given the story potential surrounding Hurricane Katrina. “Drive” had characters who emerged from that disaster, and this season “Heroes” will too, so there’s a possibility it could be worth watching, but even if it is, there’s the danger that Fox will let it go the way of “Drive” and “Vanished,” and be gone before it has a chance to really prove itself.

Also, “New Amsterdam” (coming this fall) could be a promising Fox series. Funny enough, the show’s star, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (“Kingdom of Heaven” and “Firewall”) bears a resemblance to “Vanished” series star Gale Harold and “Drive” series star Nathan Fillion. But the show bears more omens of possible failure than Fox’s constant attempts to get the average male lead character archetype down to a science. With an immortal detective, it might have competition in “Moonlight” and the two could cancel each other out. One could cite the fact that “Blade: The Series” didn’t do too well as a clue that TV audiences won’t just jump onboard for any old vampire/immortal hour of TV, but then again, expectations connected to the comic and movies probably hurt “Blade” more than the appeal for its target demographic of sci-fi/horror enthusiasts.

“K-Ville” and “New Amsterdam” might not be on most people’s radar yet, but they show some promise in a barren reality wasteland of contemporary television and shouldn’t be discounted by audiences or their network.