Summer TV Guide: June-August 2008

When I speak of a Summer TV Guide, I mean the summer calendar in the US. Sure, I’m half-way around the world and I’m basically following their shows online or on cable. Summer here is already in its second month…and we’re experiencing some rainfall now. But over there, it’s just beginning to heat up.

Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, House and every other show that returned last month will soon wrap up to close their season, to come back in the Fall. So, what’s left to watch when these are all gone? Below is the guide to this year’s Summer TV. 

NEW SHOWS 

I SURVIVED A JAPANESE GAME SHOW
Schedule: ABC Tuesday nights beginning June
- This unscripted reality/game show takes an eye-opening, behind-the-scenes look at 10 Americans who are whisked away to Japan and compete in the ultimate Japanese game show. The results and prizing will be based on who best adapts to the Japanese culture and challenges in each episode.

FEAR ITSELF
Schedule: NBC Thursday nights beginning June
- A host of provocative directors, actors and writers - including award-winning directors John Landis ("An American Werewolf in London"), Darren Bousman ("Saw II, III and IV"), Ronny Yu ("Freddy vs. Jason," "Bride of Chucky"), Brad Anderson ("The Machinist"), Breck Eisner (upcoming Universal Pictures film "Creature from the Black Lagoon"), Mary Harron ("American Psycho"), Stuart Gordon ("Re-Animator") and Ernest Dickerson (NBC’s "Heroes") - have been signed for NBC’s "Fear Itself," a new 13-episode suspense and horror anthology series

WIPEOUT
Schedule: ABC Tuesday nights beginning June
- Twenty-four contenders compete in an extreme obstacle course designed to provide the most crashes, face plants, impacts and wipe outs ever seen on television. During each one-hour episode, one competitor will win the title of Wipeout champion and $50,000.

SWINGTOWN
Schedule: CBS Thursday nights beginning June
- The series peeks into the shag-carpeted suburban homes of the culturally transformative ’70s to find couples reveling in the sexual and social revolution that introduced women’s liberation and challenged conventional wisdom. During this heady era of provocative change, Susan and Bruce Miller move their family to an affluent Chicago suburb where they’re confronted with personal choices, experimentation and shifting attitudes, all against the backdrop of a changing social climate defined by its unforgettable music, fashion and style.

THE MIDDLEMAN
Schedule: ABC Family Monday nights beginning June
- The Middleman follows the surreal life of twenty-something year-old Wendy Watson as she gets recruited by a top secret agency to fight comic book-esque criminals under the guidance of her straight-laced boss, The Middleman.

SECRET DIARY OF A CALL GIRL
Schedule: SHOWTIME Monday nights beginning June
- She is smart, strong and confident and, like many modern women, she is struggling to balance her personal and professional life. In her case this pendulum swings between her job as a legal secretary, where she is known as Hannah, and her career as one of London’s high-class call girls, where her clients simply refer to her as Belle, the answer to all their wildest fantasies. Trying to keep these two worlds from colliding results in some interesting situations and some humorous circumstances, including keeping her secret life from her family and her best friend Ben.

THE SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER
Schedule: ABC Family Tuesday nights beginning July
- From the creator of "7th Heaven," comes a heartfelt one hour drama that focuses on the relationships between families and friends and how they deal with an unexpected teen pregnancy.

FLASHPOINT
Schedule: CBS Friday nights beginning July
- It’s a unit that rescues hostages, busts gangs, defuses bombs, climbs the sides of buildings and talks down suicidal teens. As they race against the clock to determine what brought these people to their respective breaking points, members of this highly skilled team use their training in negotiating, profiling and getting inside the suspect’s head to diffuse the situation to try to save lives.

RETURNING SHOWS 

• The Mole (Season 5)
• My Boys (Season 2)
• Burn Notice (Season 2)
• Greek (Season 2)
• Robin Hood (Season 2 - US, Season 3 - UK)

SPECIALS

• SUMMER OLYMPICS in CHINA 

No break for couch potatoes! Note that this isn’t the final list, as networks have yet to complete their calendar.

Source: The Futon Critic