Fox, CBS top 2009-10 TV season full of surprises

Glad to see FOX continue it's success along with its news division. I'm a little sad that my favorite program "24" was trashed, but NCIS and CSI have survived, along with Criminal Minds and The Mentalist.

Read the article to see what succeeded and what didn't.

Excerpt: As expected, Fox has clinched its sixth ratings victory in a row among the coveted adults 18-49 demographic, setting a record for the most consecutive wins by a broadcast network. And for the seventh time in eight years, CBS dominated among total viewers. Both networks, along with the CW, managed to match last year's average adult demo rating for the season. Meanwhile, ABC and NBC faced erosion because of aging programs and a plan to radically redesign 10 p.m., respectively.

But 2009-10 nonetheless was a surprisingly positive season. Success stories not only were fairly widespread, but they also inspired the industry by challenging key assumptions.

Comedy, long presumed dead, came back.

Reality, presumed stagnant, came back.

And dramas, well, dramas were like Jack Bauer: getting long in the tooth and running out of time. Still, despite sagging numbers, aging shows haven't cast a negative light on the genre's potential.

Even award shows, which during recent years were considered creakily orchestrated throwbacks, managed to reverse their downward viewership trends.

Sports programming, too, set records, with CBS airing the most-watched Super Bowl of all time and NBC's Vancouver Olympics coverage posting gains.

But it was comedies that made the biggest splash. The season's top success stories among scripted programming all were of that ilk, whether single camera (ABC's "Modern Family"), multicamera (CBS' ratings sensation "The Big Bang Theory") or hourlong musical (Fox's "Glee"). Read "Fox, CBS top 2009-10 TV season full of surprises" here.