Once upon a time, watching television in the summer meant a diet of leftovers — dollops of reruns and thrown-together burn-offs of failed series. Not anymore: As networks move closer and closer to year-round scheduling, this summer is shaping up as a veritable feast.
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Among the most-hyped events are TNT's delectable Dallas relaunch, which puts spurs to haunches on June 13, and NBC's London Summer Olympics coverage, which begins July 27. Viewers can also expect the usual menu of reality TV fare, and political convention coverage — the GOP in Tampa Bay, Fla., in August, the Democrats in Charlotte, N.C., in September — will provide late-summer digestifs to the season. Expect your viewing plate to be full for the next few months. Here are 10 new summer entrees — er, entries — we think will be worth sampling:
Emily Mortimer and Jeff Daniels in HBO's "The Newsroom" — Courtesy HBO
1. The Newsroom, HBO, Sundays at 10 p.m. ET, beginning June 24
Aaron Sorkin's gift for snappy dialogue has earned him major movie award love recently — he won an Oscar for 2010's The Social Network and was nominated for last year's Moneyball. He's no stranger to TV, having penned series such as Sports Night and The West Wing, and now he's turning his attention back to the small screen and to the ever-evolving world of TV news. Jeff Daniels stars as an anchor trying to keep up in the new media environment ("I have a blog?") and Jane Fonda takes a nice, against-type role as the conservative head of the network (because whenever you think of Rupert Murdoch, you think of Jane Fonda, right?). Sam Waterston, Emily Mortimer and Dev Patel also star.
Next: Longmire, A&E, Sunday. »
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