Summer Report Card

Like a good beach read, summer TV can be deliciously addictive—if a network hits on the right formula. Broadcast TV, once a desert of reruns and bad specials, is now a fountain of playful reality shows, while cable channels are reviving what has become a tradition of increasing their original offerings as the mercury rises. It all adds up to more original summer programming than ever.

So far, celebrity-infused reality shows are scoring, as are cooking competitions. But two more studious programs—about legendary Americans and students competing for college tuition—have started out slowly. With the 2005 summer season heating up, B&C checks the temperature of new shows and previews a few entries still to come.

Celebrity Reality: With fancy footwork and stars including Evander Holyfield (below, with Edyta Sliwinska) and Rachel Hunter, ABC boasts the summer's first hit, Dancing With the Stars. The live competition nabbed 15.1 million viewers June 7 and earned ABC its best summer rating in six years in adults 18 to 49 years old.

NBC is playing a different tune, reviving famous-but-moribund music acts such Vanilla Ice and Wang Chung on the reality show Hit Me Baby One More Time, which snagged 7.2 million viewers and a 3.6 rating/11 share in 18-49s. Another faded celeb, former supermodel and Mick Jagger-ex Jerry Hall, is back in the spotlight with VH1's new series Kept, in which she grooms young male suitors. A recent episode drew about a million viewers—very nice by VH1 standards.

In the Kitchen: Food Network's search for a new personality, The Next Food Network Star, sizzled in its June 5 debut, enticing 4.5 million viewers. Fox got some savory results with the reality show Hell's Kitchen, about chefs vying for a job with famously temperamental chef Gordon Ramsey: 6.9 million viewers (3.5/9 in 18-49s) in its second week.

Thrillers and Psychics: Morphing last summer's hit miniseries The 4400 into a full series is looking smart for USA Network. The June 5 premiere of the show, with Joel Gretsch (above), about a group of people kidnapped by aliens and then returned to Earth, pulled in an audience of 5.3 million. NBC, borrowing from Court TV, launched the crime-solving reality show Psychic Detective for a summer run that is producing solid numbers, 6.3 million viewers and a 1.7 rating in adults 18-49. Showing the power of broadcast, the ratings are six times higher than the program's Court TV average.

Greatest American (Discovery Channel): This much hyped new series of specials debuted June 5 with a disappointing 949,000 viewers, making it the 25th-ranked show on Discovery last week.

The Inside (Fox): Centered on L.A.'s violent-crimes police unit, the drama, with Rachel Nichols (above), limped out June 8 with 4.7 million viewers and a 2.0/6 in 18-49s.

Fight for Fame (E!): Wannabe actors battle for an agent contract, but only 279,000 viewers watched the backbiting on the premiere, half of E!'s usual prime time marks.

The Scholar (ABC): ABC's latest feel-good reality show, where students compete for a college scholarship, has been put on academic probation by viewers. The June 6 premiere's audience of 4.7 million (1.7/5 in 18-49s) put the show third behind CBS sitcoms and a Fear Factor repeat on NBC.

The Closer (TNT, June 13 at 9 p.m. ET): Drama stars Kyra Sedgwick (below) as an ace LAPD interrogator.

Wildfire (ABC Family, June 20 at 8): A troubled teen looks for a fresh start on a new family's ranch.

I Want To Be a Hilton, (NBC, June 21 at 9): Paris Hilton's mom, Kathy, teaches contestants something—we're just not sure what.

Over There (FX, July 27 at 10): Steven Bochco-produced drama about soldiers in Iraq and their families back home.