Falling indeed

Sure, there is a crumb of good news: Showtime's riveting terrorism drama Homeland 91 is the best-reviewed new fall series since we initiated our TV coverage in 2005. But that appears to be the one bright spot in a fall season filled mainly with series that can at best be described as serviceable.

The five major broadcast networks debuted 27 new (non-news) primetime shows this fall, up from 22 in 2010. But the average Metascore for this year's freshman class was just 54, down from an average of 57 in both 2010 and 2009. Just 12 of the 27 new fall programs—a mere 44%—received positive reviews from critics, and, even then, those dozen "good" programs averaged a score of 66, with none scoring higher than 70. In other words, reviews were positive, but not overwhelmingly so. Even worse, the networks introduced six new shows over the past few months that were negatively reviewed by critics, compared to just two such programs last fall.

For the second straight year, the fall season's best-reviewed show was on cable rather than broadcast television; indeed, four of the five highest-scoring fall shows aired on cable networks. But Homeland was the only newcomer that managed to score above 80 (the range we use to represent widespread critical acclaim); last fall, three shows exceeded that mark.

Fortunately, the future brings a reason for optimism: many networks seem to have held back their stronger shows for midseason. (Think shows like NBC's Smash, Awake, and The Firm, ABC's The River and Missing, and HBO's Luck). But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let's go back to fall and see how the broadcast networks rank now that the season has concluded.

Broadcast Network Comparison, Fall 2011 vs. Fall 2010 (New Shows Only)

Network		Fall 2011 New Shows	Average Metascore		Fall 2010 New Shows	Average Metascore		Change
		5:	58		5:	58		--
		5:	55		3:	65		↓10
		6: *	55		7:	52		↑3
		7:	53		5:	58		↓5
		4:	47		2:	59		↓12
		All Fall 2011 New Shows:	54		All Fall 2010 New Shows:	57

* Does not include the news program Rock Center with Brian Williams.

After two straight years with the highest average Metascore for its new fall series, Fox tumbled to second place in 2011 (thanks in part to the late-arriving critical disaster I Hate My Teenage Daughter), surrendering first place to CBS. Interestingly, Fox and CBS are also the two networks that have enjoyed a successful fall in terms of ratings; both networks have grown their audience since 2010. Despite a slight uptick in quality this fall versus last year, NBC's ratings have continued to plummet, while ABC—the network with both the most positively reviewed new shows as well as the most negatively reviewed ones—has also suffered, though not as severely.

The fall season's best and worst new shows

As we indicated above, only one broadcast network series managed to crack fall's top five: the ABC sitcom Suburgatory, which placed fifth. Metacritic users, however, seemed to respond better to the broadcast offerings, giving three network shows high marks. And, as always, the broadcast networks were able to secure all of the spots on our list of worst-reviewed shows. So there's that.

Best Reviews from Critics - Fall 2011 (New Series Only)

#1		#2		#3		#4		#5
	91		78		75		75		70
Homeland Showtime		Boss Starz		Whitechapel BBC America		Enlightened HBO		Suburgatory ABC

Best Reviews from Metacritic Users - Fall 2011 (New Series Only)

#1		#2		#3		#4		#5
	8.2		8.0		7.8		7.7		7.6
Revenge ABC		Homeland Showtime		American Horror Story FX		Once Upon a Time ABC		Person of Interest CBS

Worst Reviews from Critics - Fall 2011 (New Series Only)

#1		#2		#3		#4		#5
	30		31		33		34		36
Charlie's Angels ABC		H8R The CW		Last Man Standing ABC		I Hate My Teenage Daughter Fox		Man Up! ABC

Worst Reviews from Metacritic Users - Fall 2011 (New Series Only)

#1		#2		#3		#4		#5
	1.6		2.5		2.7		3.3		4.0
H8R The CW		Allen Gregory Fox		Charlie's Angels ABC		How to Be a Gentleman CBS		Whitney NBC

New television series with 7 or more reviews and debuting on U.S. television between August 15, 2011 and November 30, 2011 were eligible for the above lists. Shows are scored and ranked based on reviews published at the time of the original first season debut; returning series are excluded from these lists. The Metascore is a weighted average of scores from top professional critics, on a scale from 0 (bad) to 100 (good). Although scores have been rounded to the nearest whole number, shows are ranked prior to rounding. User scores represent an average of scores assigned by Metacritic.com site visitors on a scale from 0 (bad) to 10 (good). All scores as of December 1, 2011.

All new fall shows

Finally, here are the scores for all of the season's new shows with at least seven reviews from professional television critics, ranked from best- to worst-reviewed.

Metascore Ranking of New Primetime Series - 2011 Fall Season

	Show (Network)	Genre	Metascore	Users
1	Homeland (Showtime)	Drama	91	8.0
2	Boss (Starz)	Drama	78	7.3
3	Whitechapel (BBC America)	Drama	75	n/a
4	Enlightened (HBO)	Comedy/drama	75	6.2
5	The X Factor (Fox)	Reality competition	70	5.6
6	Suburgatory (ABC)	Comedy	70	7.3
7	All-American Muslim (TLC)	Reality	69	7.4
8	Pan Am (ABC)	Drama	67	7.2
9	2 Broke Girls (CBS)	Comedy	66	6.4
10	New Girl (Fox)	Comedy	66	7.1
11	Revenge (ABC)	Drama	66	8.2
12	Once Upon a Time (ABC)	Drama/fantasy	66	7.7
13	Prime Suspect (NBC)	Drama	66	7.4
14	Person of Interest (CBS)	Drama	65	7.6
15	Up All Night (NBC)	Comedy	64	6.4
16	Terra Nova (Fox)	Sci-fi/drama	64	5.9
17	Hell on Wheels (AMC)	Western	63	7.5
18	A Gifted Man (CBS)	Drama	62	7.1
19	American Horror Story (FX)	Horror	61	7.8
20	Ringer (The CW)	Drama	59	6.0
21	Good Vibes (MTV)	Animation/comedy	58	n/a
22	Unforgettable (CBS)	Drama	57	5.3
23	The Secret Circle (The CW)	Drama	55	7.3
24	Grimm (NBC)	Drama/fantasy	55	7.1
25	Free Agents (NBC) *	Comedy	51	5.2
26	Whitney (NBC)	Comedy	50	4.0
27	The Exes (TV Land)	Comedy	49	n/a
28	The Playboy Club (NBC) *	Drama	45	5.9
29	Hart of Dixie (The CW)	Drama	43	6.8
30	How to Be a Gentleman (CBS) *	Comedy	42	3.3
31	Allen Gregory (Fox)	Animation/comedy	39	2.5
32	Man Up! (ABC)	Comedy	36	5.9
33	I Hate My Teenage Daughter (Fox)	Comedy	34	n/a
34	Last Man Standing (ABC)	Comedy	33	4.6
35	H8R (The CW) *	Reality	31	1.6
36	Charlie's Angels (ABC) *	Drama	30	2.7

Shows are ranked by Metascore prior to rounding. Minimum 7 critic reviews needed for inclusion.
* Show has been canceled.

What are your favorites?

What are your favorite and least favorite new shows of the fall season? What did the critics get right and wrong when first assessing these new programs? Let us know in the comments section below.