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CHICAGO – “The Goodwin Games” is bad, bad, bad. You know a show is likely to be awful when a network cuts back the order and buries its premiere in a time of year when most people are getting outside or going to see Summer blockbusters. While the networks are busy promoting Fall 2013 at Upfronts, who cares about a new show that won’t make it more than two months? And yet there is sometimes reason for hope that a network executive just missed the humor and is actually burying a hidden gem. Hope dies at “The Goodwin Games” and I wish they had buried it deeper.

CHICAGO – The five broadcast networks have announced their Fall 2013 schedules and so it’s now easy to see them night by night, timeslot by timeslot. Which timeslots seem the most competitive? Do you know what you’re going to watch or schedule in your DVR? Here’s the chart you need to figure it out.

CHICAGO – The CW is shaking things up this Fall, perhaps recognizing that their audience doesn’t care as much what night of the week their shows are on as they’re getting increasingly likely to DVR, download, or stream them. 40% of the net’s line-up is switching nights, moving around three new shows in the mid-section of the week.

CHICAGO – Few shows have fallen as far and as hard as Showtime’s once-brilliant “Dexter”. At the end of season four, the show was at a turning point and I even thought that the exploration of responsibility in season five was creatively strong. Then season six turned to religion but did so in a half-hearted way.