CBS Looking At A Season Of Hits, Based On Fan-Talk

With the new season's premiere less than a month away CBS is already looking like a big winner, based on online fan reactions.

The company Trendum has been analysing the online response to the 2005-2006 crop of new television shows and has found CBS has a couple of hits in its hands. Trendum's main objective is to study online trends and research opinions expressed by the average television viewers. The company last year predicted the shows Lost and Desperate Housewives would be instant hits, despite the fact that both shows were slammed by critics before they premiered. Trendum has also predicted the demise of television flops, such as Fox's Skin.

This year, Trendum spent the summer online, monitoring fan reaction to the upcoming crop of new shows. The company read over 14 million online messages and has found that the new CBS drama Ghost Whisperer has generated more buzz (positive, negative, and neutral) than any of the other new shows. Based on the works of real-life medium James Van Praagh, the show follows the life of Melinda Gordon (played by Jennifer Love-Hewitt), a young woman who can communicate with the dead. Ghost Whisperer also stars Aisha Tyler (Mia Dickerson) as Andrea Moreno, Gordon's best friend. The show hasn't exactly been critically acclaimed by media observers, but Trendum predicts it could become one of the Eye network's biggest hits.

Other CBS shows are generating positive buzz as well. Threshold, a drama that follows the government's reaction to an alien invasion, seems to be one of the most talked-about shows online, and could therefore build a strong audience and become a big hit. CBS's new sitcom How I Met Your Mother is also one of the most talked-about new shows of the season. It revolves around the story of how a couple met and fell in love. The show is narrated by Bob Saget and told through flashbacks. How I Met Your Mother's success could heavily benefit CSI: Miami, as the sitcom has been chosen to be the show's new lead-in.

But CBS isn't the only network that's expecting a good season. In fact, every network has a potential hit in their hands, according to Trendum. NBC’s The Apprentice: Martha Stewart and Surface have had the fans talking all summer, and Fox’s Prison Break and Bones, the WB’s Supernatural, and ABC’s Invasion and Freddie are also on Trendum's list of could-be hits. Prison Break's potential success could mean bad news for the CSI franchise, however, as the show will air Wednesday nights opposite CSI: New York.

To learn more about Trendum and read the original article, head over to Media Week.

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