Okay, folks...here is my best and worst of 2007 (in random order). Do you agree or disagree?

WINNERS

The Sopranos (HBO)
Yes, the questionable ending left many fans cold last spring. Is Tony still alive? Was he whacked? But the painful slow decline of Tony Soprano was an appropriate swan song for this troubled mobster. Even if he did live, he is still suffering.

Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) and CSI (CBS)
Despite facing each other in the same time period, the two dramas still wiped the floor with the competition (including NBC sitcoms The Office and Scrubs). Who says there can’t be two big hits in one hour?

Drew Carey
Morphing from the star of a mediocre sitcom to the host of two successful game shows, The Price is Right and The Power of 10, makes Drew Carey the comeback king of 2007. Even so, I still miss Bob Barker. Don’t you?

Brothers & Sisters (ABC)
If you miss the good old days of thirtysomething and seek a group of TV characters to talk about at the water-cooler, look no further. Brothers & Sisters is hands down the best relationship driven drama on the air today.

Dancing with the Stars (ABC)
Variety is not dead. It’s alive and well in the form of the red-hot Dancing with the Stars.

High School Musical 2 (Disney Channel)
No, it won’t exactly win any Emmys. But a whopping 17.2 million viewers in its debut makes High School Musical 2 the highest rated basic cable broadcast in the history of television.

America Ferrera
A hit show, Ugly Betty, and an Emmy to boot…certainly not a bad beginning for one of the brightest stars of tomorrow…America Ferrera. Now it is time to lose the braces and glamour it up a bit.

Lost (ABC)
After three seasons and countless mysteries, we finally got some answers. But how did Jack and Kate get off the island? And who was Kate going home to? Sawyer? Tune in on Thursday, Jan. 31 for the fourth season-premiere.

Private Practice (ABC)
A big hit? No. But the art of the spin-off is still alive and well in the form of Private Practice.

Showtime
Brotherhood, Californication, Dexter, The L Word, The Tudors, Weeds -- Showtime has picked up where HBO has left off.


LOSERS

Isaiah Washington
From Grey’s Anatomy, a bona fide hit, to the waiting-to-be axed Bionic Woman makes opinionated Isaiah Washington the biggest loser of 2007.

Mandy Patinkin
First he prematurely exits Chicago Hope and the show is not negatively impacted. Then he abruptly departs Criminal Minds and…guess what?...the show is just fine. Will anyone (CBS, in particular) ever hire Mandy Patinkin again?

Viva Laughlin (CBS)
Too bad no one at CBS heard of that classic 1990 fiasco called Cop Rock before it briefly put this musical drama about a casino on the air. Please Melanie Griffith…stay away from the small screen!

Cavemen (ABC)
Why would anyone in their right mind think that a cute series of Geico insurance commercials would make a funny sitcom?

Rosie O’Donnell
While it looked like Rosie O’Donnell would bounce right back after her tumultuous stint on The View with her own talk show on MSNBC, the cable net backed out.

The CW
Word of advice to the programmers of tomorrow: two failed networks does not equal one hit.

ER (NBC)
After 14 seasons it is time to pull the plug on this once must see medical drama. Please NBC…let ER go with some dignity.

Nashville (Fox)
Watching paint dry was more interesting than witnessing this Fox reality series about country musical wannabes in Nashville.

The TV Audience
The ongoing writers’ strike means that viewers are being bombarded with repeats and more reality shows. What is a viewer to do?

Summer 2007
Anchorwoman (Fox), The Ex-Wives Club (ABC), Fast Cars & Superstars (ABC), On the Lot (Fox) and Pirate Master (CBS) -- Yup, the “Gone Fishing” sign was up once again.

quote:

Originally posted by Marc Berman:
High School Musical 2 (Disney Channel)
No, it won’t exactly win any Emmys. But a whopping 17.2 million viewers in its debut makes High School Musical 2 the highest rated basic cable broadcast in the history of television.

Are you sure about this? Because HSM2 was not eligible for the 2007 Emmys - they will be in 2008. And HSM1 won 2 Primetime Emmys and were nominated for 4 more. Just saying.

I agree about them being a winner though. Aside from the huge numbers for the premiere, every other TV show would be thrilled with the rating they get for their 25th or 50th or 100th encore.

I thought the Patriots-Ravens game surpassed HSM2 in number of viewers.

i actually agree with a good chunk of that. im just hoping for more good new stuff to come in 08. any suggestions for anything to be on the look out for?

Very good list amd I agree with all of it.

If I were to put in any additions, I would put NBC (minus football) and Bionic Woman by itself on the losers list. NBC just didn't get it done this fall season.

I would also be tempted to stick My Network TV on the winners list. Granted, ratings weren't high but they got some 5th place finishes ahead of the CW while basically programming anything they could find. That might be good for some sort of recognition.

Great list Marc. I agree with all of it, even though I don't watch many of the "winners".

I'd like to add to MY list of winners: "MY DVR".

It has made watching TV stress free. I don't have to worry about missing shows because of work or if I have to put my son to bed. I can record all of my son's favorite shows- no more DVD's to keep track of. To be able to FF through boring scenes or ads comes second nature to me (i'm a video editor). If I see something important, I can REWIND- which is great.

I agree with all your WINNERS and LOSERS, except the following suggested revisions:

WINNERS? - America Ferrera -> Her talents are unarguable, however, I fear Miss Ferrera may be becoming a bit typecast as Ugly Betty in a way that plagued Mr. Adam West throughout the latter part of his career. Could it be we only love Miss Ferrara in braces and her flaming red Guadalajara poncho much the same way we loved Mr. West in his cape and cowl?

WINNERS - Mad Men (AMC) -> The series of the year in my books, and one that has me looking forward to AMC's new scripted entry "Breaking Bad". As much as I like the esoteric offerings of Showtime, AMC is the network I'm most excited about going forward into 2008.

LOSERS NOBLE EXPERIMENT - Viva Laughlin (CBS) -> We'll never really know where this noble CBS experiment was going, having only a mere two episodes to whet the appetite. In the end, CBS erred by telling the producers to go half-way on the musical bits, and the sing-along-to-the-soundtrack compromise really didn't work that well. I really hope the end result of this is not that Mr. Moonves orders up more of those over-saturated procedurals, as his network is the one that is running the genre into the ground already.

LOSERS COURAGEOUS COMEDY - Cavemen (ABC) - A second noble experiment, and one of my comedy highlights of the fall season because it tried to break outside the box of the network sitcom. From the beginning, the decision makers at the Alphabet and the producers knew this series would be attacked and ridiculed, and they walked through the storm to create a rather sweet, funny little comedy about Neanderthal men (and a few women too). As with Viva Laughlin, I hope that once ABC and CBS run dry of scripted fare, that they broadcast the remaining unaired episodes of these two series that dared to be different.

BRAVE INNOVATION - Wicked Wicked Games (MNT) - This series, which left the air in a flurry of plot resolution in early March, left me with such a deep yearning for more telenovellas that I am seriously considering taking Spanish classes in the New Year so I can be part of the Destilando Amores phenomenon. MyNetworkTV is to be applauded for taking an enormous gamble in bringing the telenovella to English language television, and it was a ratings failure yes, but has failure ever shone with such lustre? A New Year's wish is that MNT releases this glorious telenovella series to DVD.

WINNER - Turner Classic Movies (TCM) - My 'Network of the Year' for the past decade or so has been Turner Classic Movies. It is my desert island network, the one and only network that I would march upon my cable supplier if they ever dared to remove it from my menu of choices. TCM is 24 hours a day of mostly cinematic treasure, with a significant number of newly found "lost" classics programmed each week, their lineup of informative documentaries and last, but not least, all those fascinating tidbits told by Mr. Robert Osborne as intros and outros to each TCM film. No other movie channel can hold a candle to what TCM has done to celebrate Hollywood's richest legacy.

XWISEGUYX Presents: 2007 Winners & Losers :(The Official xwiseguyx approved list)

WINNERS:

TOP CHEF (Bravo): Congrats to our very own Chicago Based candidate to going all the way! A very good season for this show which moves to Chicago in 2008!

TORCHWOOD (BBC America): I'm not a sci-fi lover nor to I usually like many Brit shows, but this is innovative and the most addicting Sci-fi show to date. And John Barrowman rocks!

30 Rock (NBC): A brilliant 2nd season, a brilliant sitcom. The Jerry Seinfeld stuntcasting was the best episode of any show in 2007.

Kitchen Nightmares (FOX): What a wonderful turnaround from awful 3rd Season Hell's Kitchen. I'm now a fan of Gordan Ramsey again.

Dexter (Showtime): Fabulous 2nd Season deserves the appropriate recognition.

'Til Death (FOX): The first sitcom on FOX to actually make me laugh in quite some time. 2nd season a huge improvement over Season 1.

Nip/Tuck (FX): It took 5 seasons, but I'm finally hooked!!!

Dirty Sexy Money (ABC): The only new show of the season to totally suck me in. A glorious updated return to the days of Dynasty like Soaps. Donald Sutherland is pure gold.

The King Of Queens Final Season: Congrats to CBS for giving it a great high profile timeslot for it's final season and letting this underrated sitcom go out on a high note!

Thank God Your Here (NBC): This show could have lived on for many seasons if they had just placed this one on late nights in place of SNL reruns. A wonderful show that was marketed poorly.

1 vs. 100 (NBC): Another show that NBC has no clue on how to market and has bucked the odds to make it back for a second season.

Lost (ABC): A great season for this show.

Desperate Housewives (ABC): The best cast addition for 2007 is Dana Delany! I loved her on the shortlived, Pasadena and she is very similar to that character. Great casting Marc Cherry!

Amazing Race (CBS): For another Emmy win and for it continuing to be my all time favorite Reality Show. (And apparently others on this forum finishing number one on the CBS Showdown!)

Mad Men (AMC): Very innovative show. A great debut series for a cable channel I never watched up until now.

LOSERS

The Black Donnelly's (NBC): This Sopranos style TV show had no chance in heck making it on regular network TV. I never made it through an episode.

Caveman (ABC): Yikes! What a train wreck of a show.

Viva Laughlin (CBS): How can such a wonderful concept be so messed up. Melanie Griffith lipsyncing is the single worst moment in Network TV history.

Grease: You're The One That I Want (NBC): A decent concept totally bombed due to it's total American Idol rip-off style. What's worse, is the Broadway Production is (was?) a critical mess as well.

John From Cincinnati (HBO): Whoever could sit through that show for the entire season deserves an award. I'm not sure what the award would be, but an award.

ABC's shoddy treatment of The George Lopez Show: When a show is on as many years as this one, it deserved a better send off!

ABC's even shoddier treatment of Traveler AND Masters of Science Fiction: Hey ABC, how about letting the viewers decide if a show is not artistically up to standards!

Creature Comforts (CBS): Someone at CBS was high when they gave this the green light.

Winners - I've actually only watched shows that I enjoy, and have been very satisfied with them. The Office, 30 Rock are at top, and Top Chef was definitely a favorite, as well.

Losers - Cavemen.

I would add SNL as one of the losers, but Andy Samberg and a few of their digital shorts keep me from saying anything bad .. yet.