For Fall '07, It's City Sirens, Geek Chic and the Undead

May 18, 2007 — -- Above all the bells and whistles at the just-completed "upfronts" -- the TV networks' twice-annual seasonal lineup presentations -- where the media companies used everything from flying footballs to the Pussycat Dolls to garner attention, one message emerged loud and clear: This fall, TV viewers will be tuning out the world's troubles and tuning into fun, sexy, escapist entertainment.

Apart from a few mainstays -- including Fox's "24," which will play on for two more "days" into the 2009 season, and CBS' "The Unit" -- the white-knuckled, headlines-on-steroids suspense series are virtually absent from the 2007-2008 schedules.

"Sometimes people don't want to be challenged. They just want to have a passive, entertaining viewing experience," Melissa Grego, managing editor for trade publication TelevisionWeek, said about the networks' shift in tone. "People like escapism."

For fall 2007, fantasy rules -- from the beautiful lives of Manhattan's elite to the otherworldly realms of the undead to the newfound popularity of geeks.

It's no secret that TV has long embraced the "sex sells" standard. But this season, the action has migrated from Los Angeles' beaches and Fairview's Wisteria Lane to New York's concrete jungle.

The CW is billing its new show "Gossip Girl" as the next "O.C." No doubt inspired by the success of the soap/drama that ended last season and MTV's quasi-reality program "Laguna Beach: The Real O.C.," the CW signed on "O.C." creator Josh Schwartz to adapt a bestselling series of young adult novels for the screen.

The show focuses on two posh, privileged high school girls from Manhattan's Upper East Side. Dawn Ostroff, the network's president of entertainment, said the show promises to do for New York what the "O.C." did for Los Angeles. (Of course, most women above the age of 20 know that the "O.C." did for Los Angeles what "Sex and the City" had already done for New York.)

Viewers who yearn for a dose of the "Sex"-appeal -- and actually want to watch women old enough to legally hit Manhattan's hot clubs -- should head to NBC and ABC. Both networks have lined up shows that feature groups of women struggling to climb the corporate ladder in four-inch Manolos and later toasting themselves with a fancy cocktail -- or five.