As I started putting this list together it occurred to me, "Holy crap, there is a lot of good TV this summer." The summer used to be the time when my VCRs cooled their worn out heads after nine months of hard work. And now I find myself needing the Tivo and the DVR to keep up with everything. That's progress!

Much to many of our readers' dismay, FOX did not renew The Loop for next season. The network is going to burn off the remaining ten episodes very, very quickly so pay attention.

Here's the schedule:

Tuesdays, June 5, 12 @ 8:30 pm
Sundays, June 10, 17, 24 & July 1 @ 8:30 pm & 9:30 pm

Personally, I'd lose track of those if I didn't have a TiVo or some sort of DVR to record all the episodes. Once The Loop is over, you can see star Bret Harrison playing the lead role in The CW's new drama, Reaper.

It's that time of the year. People are being cast in pilots left and right and some interesting stuff has been announced. At ABC, Christopher Titus (Titus) has landed one of the lead roles in an untitled project from Warner Bros. The show focuses on CEOs and also stars Dylan McDermott (The Practice) and Michael Vartan (Alias). McDermott and Vartan as CEOs is an easy sell. But Christopher Titus, Senior VP Harvard graduate? That's different, and something I look forward to checking out.

Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix) is set to star in ABC's Suspect. The show is a procedural that will solve crimes by tracking suspects through a lineup. She's joined by Eric Palladino (ER) and Kathleen Munroe (Beautiful People). The ABC track record for procedurals is less than impressive, but the addition of Guy Ritchie (Snatch) as director is intriguing enough to give this one a look.

Fox has released premiere dates for their summer programming, and as one would expect, it will be a mostly reality TV season. On The Lot, from Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett, will kick off on May 16th. Joining them later will be So You Think You Can Dance on May 24th and Hells Kitchen on June 25th.

The lone scripted series in the announcement is the return of The Loop. The show will return for its second season on June 10th, apparently minus the Piper and Lizzy characters. And that is the only one that really surprises me out of this group. With Spielberg and Burnett, it's obvious why On The Lot is getting a shot. While no match for their big brother Idol, SYTYCD has been a solid summer show and it's up to the lighter competition the season provides. Ditto for Hells Kitchen.

The Loop, on the other hand, was not warmly received, and I think most of its debatable ratings success had more to do with the time slot than anything they put on the screen. Don't get me wrong, I actually really like the show, but I'm still not clear on how a second season ever came to be. The fact that it has now been shuffled from a possible mid-season slot to the summer probably signals that there won't be a third installment.

[ via the futon critic ]