


Save Me | NBC, 8 ET/PT

Whatever the broadcast networks do, viewership will still drop in the summer as kids get out of school, people go on vacation, and we all just spend more time outdoors. So we shouldn't mind if they air shows that are not quite ready for fall: offbeat experiments or niche programs that might thrive in a less-competitive field. What we can't accept is their habit of off-loading mistakes, as with Save Me, a head-slappingly awful sitcom NBC is giving a two-show-a-week dump in the summer. Anne Heche stars as a loathed-by-all angry drunk who dies and comes back as a prophet of God (who, as it turns out, is mostly interested in dispensing sexual advice). You can see why NBC didn't air it in season. What you won't understand is why in God's name the network ever ordered it in the first place.

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Does Someone Have to Go? | Fox, 9 ET/PT

And then there are the geniuses at Fox reality — the same people overseeing the ratings collapse of American Idol and the failure-to-launch that is X Factor — who now give us a show that turns the specter of unemployment into a Survivor-type game. If you're looking for someone who has to be fired, I know where to start.

Motive | ABC, 9 ET/PT

At least NBC and Fox make their own summer mistakes. ABC imports them from Canada, not that you'd know it from this clumsy procedural mediocrity, which scrupulously whitewashes away any sense of place. Even in repeat, Person of Interest and Elementary are more original.

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