So now that you've heard my take on many of this season's new shows, what do the ratings say? There's no breakout hits early in the 2006 season, writes The Hollywood Reporter's Andrew Wallenstein. Fox's entire lineup of new shows seems to have failed. "Vanished" and "Justice," unseen by me, didn't start impressively and are fading fast. "Happy Hour" may already be dead. It's been removed from the schedule for Thursday as the network will try to force "'Til Death" down our throats with two episodes in a row. No, thank you. Good and bad news for "Standoff": the show is halting production due to a lack of completed scripts, but former "Angel" and "Firefly" writer Tim Minear is coming on board as a consulting producer. I don't know how much of a difference it will make for most of the people who already aren't watching "Standoff," but I for one will keep tuning in to see what Minear can do with the show. If you're familiar with his work, you know why.

"Shark" was, not surprisingly, a huge flop. Prospects for "The Class" do not look good. "Jericho" and "Smith" got numbers described as "competitive" by Wallenstein, but neither has yet to show a second episode, which is the real test. "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" did OK but will probably be given some time to find an audience out of deference to Aaron Sorkin and the effusive praise of critics. "Kidnapped" on the other hand was a bomb; Wallenstein quotes an NBC executive already referring to the show in the past tense. Well, I guess I can clear that pilot off of the TiVo. That's the reality of the television business: the decision will be made on most first-year shows before the vast majority of viewers have seen or even heard of them.

Good news, sort of, when it comes to returning shows: "Grey's Anatomy" beat out "CSI" last Thursday night. I am not a huge fan of "Grey's," but I much prefer that sort of character-based drama over creepy corpse-porn like "CSI." Still going strong is "House," which is a really good show that completely overcomes my general bias against medical dramas, "ER," which I haven't watched or thought about since I was in high school, and "CSI: Miami," indicating that the audience for sunny corpse porn is still going strong.