TV in Fall 2010

In a perfect world, television shows with good acting and writing would continue while poor ones would be canceled. It's not a perfect world. Budgets, personalities, and pandering to the lowest common denominator rule the day, so… here's the scoop on TV next fall:

Ending/Canceled: Heroes, Law & Order, Scrubs, FlashForward, Dollhouse, 24, 'Til Death, Ghost Whisperer, Cold Case, Ugly Betty, Lost, et al.

Renewed: Chuck, V, Castle, Survivor, American Idol (sans Simon Cowell), The Marriage Ref, Parks and Recreation, Community, Who Do You Think You Are, and many more.

Here's TV Guide's scorecard for the Fall schedule.

• So NBC is getting rid of "Law & Order" (tied with "Gunsmoke" with a record 20 seasons of drama) but is ordering a new "Law & Order: Los Angeles." I've not watched any of the Law & Order series for years (since the Det. Briscoe/Jack McCoy/Arthur Branch days) but I used to be a fan.
• There are rumors that "Law & Order" will move to basic cable channel TNT to air the record-breaking 21st season.
  
• I've been watching "V," in spite of itself. The show is poorly written and has some really mediocre acting, but the nostalgia factor helps me give the show a lot of grace. My question is how in the world a show like "V" gets renewed when shows like "Firefly" can't finish a single season?
• I understand the networks' reasons behind it, but I think that putting a show on a long hiatus (eight months or longer) hurts the fan base of the show.
• Survivor has been moved to Wednesday nights at 7. Formerly, it had been on Thursdays nights since 2001. Survivor's first season was on Wednesday nights at 8, all the back in 2000.
• I can't believe CBS greenlit a new show with the s-word in the title, staring William Shatner. I suppose they could change the word to "stuff" or even "shat" (because of Shatner), but still…
• The traditional network television season is roughly September-December with the second half from January to May. But cable television is throwing that to the wind. Cable channels sometimes offset their programs so that you're watching their shows when the networks are showing reruns, e.g. AMC's "Mad Men" starts July 25, while the Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch" started in April and will run through the summer.
• Conan O'Brien returns to TV, this time on TBS, on November 8.