Features

TV Column:
Lisa de Moraes

What's next for the Hollywood studios? The Post's Lisa de Moraes has the scoop.

TV Critic:
Tom Shales

The Post's Tom Shales dissects the networks' new offerings with wit and humor.

While your favorite shows take a summer break, change channels and follow a new storyline. Here's a sampling of new and returning series through July.

 

New Programs Calendar

Based on the network’s popular interactive online feature, homeowners renovate rooms based on viewer suggestions.
The network touts this new series as "a mix of HGTV makeover shows, cut down to give you the parts you like most" - i.e., before-and-after looks at each room.
Based on the graphic novels by Javier Grillo-Marxauch, this series follows do-gooder Wendy Watson as she’s recruited to fight crime under the guidance of her boss, the Middleman.
Billie Piper stars in this British import that follows a prostitute on and off the job. (Fair warning: It’s every bit as risque as it sounds.)
From the creators of "Deadliest Catch" and "Ice Road Truckers," this series follows the lives of men who drill for crude oil in Texas.
Two dozen contestants compete each week in an extreme obstacle course loaded with challenges such as the Dreadmill and Dizzy Dummy, with the winning human cannonball/pinball/pińata taking home $50,000 and scars that’ll last a lifetime.
Ten Americans travel across the Pacific to compete in one of Japan’s most popular game shows; the one who can best survive the culture shock and the show’s challenges (such as the Chicken Butt Scramble) walks away with the $250,000 grand prize.
In this social experiment based on a British series, five teen couples are fast-tracked into the real world -- getting jobs, setting up a home and, yes, becoming "parents" to children set up under their care.
ABC News takes viewers inside Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital to meet some of America’s best doctors and the patients whose lives are in their hands.
A dance competition that, unlike "Dancing With the Stars," purports to feature neither celebrities nor aspiring professional dancers. Jason Kennedy of E! News hosts.
Factory: 10 p.m., Spike TV
In a blue-collar take on "The Office," assembly-line workers do what they can to jazz up their boring routines. Mitch Rouse ("Strangers With Candy") directs and stars.
"The Singing Bee" meets the worker bee in this series in which teams of five colleagues croon for a $50,000 cash prize. Joey Fatone and former Spice Girl Mel B. host.
From the creator of "7th Heaven," this series focuses on the relationships between families and friends and (at least at the beginning) how they all deal with an unexpected pregnancy.
Al Roker hosts the latest incarnation of the "survey says" game show first hosted 22 years ago by Richard Dawson. No word yet on who the celebs will be, but they’ll compete in groups of four with either their real-life families or their TV clans.
Familiar faces from current VH1 hits (including "Flavor of Love") compete in a series of zany contests that prove dignity is no concern when $250,000 is on the line.
Humans and their pets live together and compete in games that test the owners’ ability to train their four-legged friends. The winning team gets $250,000. Wendy Diamond (pictured below), Allan Reznik and Victoria Stilwell critique the canines.
In this series developed for Canadian television, officers in the fictional Strategic Response Unit (based on an actual Toronto force) race against the clock to defuse bombs and various other dangerous situations.
Benjamin Bratt stars as an “extreme interventionist” who’s made a deal with God to kick his own addictions and help others kick theirs.
Ex-boxing champ/purveyor of indoor grills George Foreman manages his brood of 10.
In each episode of this reality-spoof series, 10 comedians are pitted against one another in parodies of popular network shows (examples: "The Amazing Disgrace," "So You Think You Can Dive!").
In a revival of the classic game show, several offbeat acts are judged in each episode by a revolving panel of three celebrity judges.
The Disney Channel mega-hit is the inspiration for a new weekly elimination contest in which contestants ages 16-22 showcase their musical skills. Nick Lachey hosts.
Celebrities judge contestants as they perform a variety of stunts before studio audiences, with friendly wagers earning cash for charity. British comedians Ant and Dec host.
Contestants must write and perform jingles about items both real and fictional -- such as beauty aids, food products, TV show themes or team fight songs -- for judges and the voting public.
Jo De La Rosa ("The Real Housewives of Orange County") looks for love in Los Angeles -- but as her suitors discover, you don’t get Jo without her ex-fiance, Slade.
 

Discussions

On TV every Friday

1 p.m. ET

Find out which shows are winners -- and losers. Lisa de Moraes discusses this and more.