Summer of fail: Why are new shows bombing?

This summer is one for the record books: more than a dozen new programs launched on broadcast television and not one breakout hit, with returning shows down and ratings at an all-time low.

After a tough season for broadcasters, summer has been a huge disappointment.

"The sheer amount of waste is staggering," one broadcast executive said. "They say reality is low cost, but there are still costs."

Accumulated near the bottom of the ratings list are new programs like ABC's wonky "Grey's Anatomy"-in-space drama "Defying Gravity" (3.3 million viewers, 1.0 adults 18-49 rating); ABC's ironically titled "The Superstars" (3.8 million, 1.3); NBC's crime drama "The Listener" (4.7 million, 1.3); Fox's scripted psychological procedural "Mental" (4.6 million, 1.4 adults 18-49 rating); NBC's once-promising drama "The Philanthropist" (5.6 million, 1.4); the CW's relationship reality show "Hitched or Ditched" (1.4 million, 0.6); NBC's imported miniseries "Merlin" (4.8 million, 1.3); and NBC's "Great American Road Trip" (3.9 million, 1.1), or, as one publicist called it, "Great American Roadkill."

Note the wide range of genres. There are programs from every broadcaster, with imported dramas like "Mental" and domestically grown titles such as "Philanthropist." There's no clear trend that the titles have in common -- other than flopping.

"Sometimes we make general pronouncements about trends; this summer we just collectively missed the mark," another network exec said. "There's too many shows with 1s in front of their demo rating. We just did a bad job."

The one potential systemic reason was that a few of the projects were picked up during the writers strike. "It felt like a leftover summer -- whatever was sitting on the shelves, a fire sale," one network exec said.

Still, that only explains some of the titles.

Among the better performers was Fox's fat bachelor dating show "More to Love" (3.9 million, 1.8), NBC's Heidi and Spencer-filled "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here" (5.0 million, 1.9) and ABC's literal blind dating series "Dating in the Dark" (5.1 million, 2.1).

"Dark" performed well when it had a "Bachelorette" lead-in and carries the highest average rating of the new shows. Yet none of them has drawn large enough of an audience to be considered highly likely to return.

Other new titles this summer include CBS' urban "Survivor" reality show "There Goes the Neighborhood" (4.8 million, 1.6) and ABC's investment reality series "Shark Tank" (4.2 million, 1.3), both of which debuted to disappointing numbers Sunday yet could improve.

At the bottom of the ratings list were a couple of shows that were new to summer but launched in-season -- like ABC's "Surviving Suburbia" (3.2 million, 0.9).

Appropriate for a summer of fail, the very last show was one of the most expensive and with the most regal title -- "Kings," which was run off on Saturdays.

At the top of the list are returning hits "America's "Got Talent" (12.4 million, 3.4) from NBC and Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance" (9 million, 3.5), with "Talent" leading in viewers and "Dance" edging out a victory for the adult demo. Fox's "Hell's Kitchen" (7.4 million, 3.4) and ABC's "Wipeout" (8.8 million, 3.1) round out the top shelf. Yet all took knocks from last summer.

The erosions are not happening in a vacuum. The ratings playing field between broadcast and cable ratings continues to collectively flatten, with several shows on cable posting gains (such as USA's "Royal Pains" and "Burn Notice" and HBO's "True Blood").

For the summer, Fox (averaging 5.2 million, 1.9) leads in the demo, with largely repeat-driven CBS (6.8 million, 1.5) tops among total viewers. Then there's ABC (4.8 million, 1.6), NBC (5.3 million, 1.5) and the CW (1 million, 0.4).

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