On TV, everyone's No. 1

The semi-annual Television Critics Association sessions have wrapped up now, leaving us with the usual miracle: Somehow, everyone is sort of No. 1 in the ratings and everyone is proud and happy; they told us so.

There are also some clear trends at the broadcast networks. Let's look at a few:

-- Networks still have no idea what to do when a show with a continuous, serialized storyline fails. Viewers deserve closure, but how? NBC moved the remaining "Kidnapped" episodes to Saturdays for two weeks and to NBC.com for a month; now they've disappeared. ABC is still dickering with music rights, so it can put the remaining "Daybreak" episodes on abc.com; it is holding onto "The Nine" (a terrific show) and "Six Degrees," claiming they might return to the schedule. CBS was stumped by "Smith," which it quickly discarded.

-- Still, the networks won't give up on serialized shows. When they work, they're magical. After a long break, NBC's "Heroes" returns to new episodes on Monday (Jan. 22) and "Jericho" returns Feb . 14; I've seen the return episodes of both and they range only from very good ("Heroes") to great ("Jericho"). Also coming is the return of "Lost," Feb. 7. Like "American Idol" and "24," these are shows too compelling to tape or TIVO; I don't think you would say the same about "Law & Order."

-- Comedies are still floundering. There are some fairly good ones coming and one is likely to be a hit. That's CBS' "Rules of Engagement," which arrives Feb. 5 -- and will soon displace "The Class," which is the best comedy on TV.

-- Reality shows are also scrambling. Mike Darnell, the Fox guy who helped propel the trend, said it was his idea to yank "The Rich List," rather than see it die slowly; he also said NBC should do the same with its "Grease" reality show. But Darnell has two more concepts he's excited about; NBC and CBS also expect fresh reality by the end of the season. CW -- the wobbly comination of WB and UPN -- even has a combined beauty pageant for mothers and their adult daughters. Meanwhile, CMT (that's stands for Country Music Television, a fact it often overlooks) is turning the Miss America beauty pageant on Jan. 29 into a sort of extended reality show. The TV people are ready to grab anything that has a winner and (preferably) a lot of losers.