CableNetworks

Before you know it, the summer will be upon us. For viewers, this is both bad and good news. The bad: The major networks resort to schedules filled with reality programming. The good: The cable networks rev up their schedules with original scripted programming. By the time July rolls around, AMC, FX, TNT and USA will be chock full of fan favorites.

For TNT, that means a new season of 'The Closer.' The network has just announced that season 6 will premiere on Mon., Jul. 12 at 9PM. Joining 'The Closer' on that evening will be the new drama 'Rizzoli & Isles.' Based on a series of Tess Gerritsen's novels, the show casts Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander as a Boston detective and medical examiner, respectively, who team up to solve cases. The series also stars Lorraine Bracco as Harmon's mother.

TNT has always excelled with shows featuring strong female leads. As long as the acting and writing is up to par on 'Rizzoli & Isles' it should have a long life on the network.

What an interesting summer for television. In general, the claim that television viewing reached an all-time high this summer doesn't really surprise me. After all, we're in what the media tells us is the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. That means more people out of work and less money for everybody.

People out of work and unable to find work are going to be bored, so they're going to watch television. People with less money are going to stay home more often, so they're going to watch television. That part makes sense to me. The part that is a little surprising, but only a little, is that all of that record viewing went to the cable networks and not the big four.

There was not a single break-out summer success story on ABC, CBS, NBC or FOX. Every single show they put on the air either crashed and burned, or barely stayed afloat. But the story is so very different on cable. Week after week we got new stories about original series breaking records on almost every network.