Starting tomorrow night, the pilot season kicks off on network TV with the CW's Ringer, followed by NBC's sitcom entries Up All Night and Free Agents on Wednesday.

I'm planning on sampling most of the pilots and will provide some ratings for each as I go. Feel free to add your own as you watch them. Ringer and Up All Night are two of my more anticipated pilots this year. Hoping for the best!

Starting this week:
-2 Broke Girls (Mon. Sept. 19; 8:30pm CBS)
-The Playboy Club (Mon. Sept. 19; 10pm NBC)

-New Girl (Tues. Sept. 20; 9pm FOX)
-Unforgettable (Tues. Sept. 20; 10pm CBS)

-Revenge (Wed. Sept. 21; 10pm ABC)

-Charlie's Angels (Thurs. Sept. 22; 8pm ABC)
-Person of Interest (Thurs. Sept. 22; 9pm CBS)
-The X-Factor (Thurs. Sept. 22; 8pm FOX)
-Whitney (Thurs. Sept. 22; 9:30pm NBC)
-Prime Suspect (Thurs. Sept. 22; 10pm NBC)

-A Gifted Man (Fri. Sept. 23; 8pm CBS)

-Pan Am (Sun. Sept. 25; 10pm ABC)

I'd like some recommendations too since I know next to nothing about this new season's new series.

To get an idea of what I might like, on TV I enjoy The Walking Dead, 24, Life on Mars, True Blood, The Shield, Being Human, The Tudors, most of Lost and the first season of Heroes,

Based on the pilots I've seen

New Girl - A
Smash - A
Person of Interest - A-
2 Broke Girls - A-
Alcatraz - A-
Once Upon A Time - B+
Revenge - B+
The River - B+
The Secret Circle - B+
Pan Am - B
Good Christian Belles - B
I Hate My Teenage Daughter - C
Charlie's Angels - C-
Grimm - D

"Grimm" is the only thing I've watched that I saw almost no merit in, while "Charlie's Angels" comes very close.

Definitely check out "Person of Interest" "The River" and "Alcatraz." I'd also give "Once Upon A Time" a chance.

Anyone see Terra Nova? The TV spots have me at least interested, I'm a sucker for quality sci-fi.

Haven't seen it yet but I've heard nothing but good things.

Hell on Wheels looks pretty neat but based on the best tv trailer so far, that would belong to FX's American Horror

I'd give the "Ringer" pilot somewhere in the B/B+ range.

I gave the NBC pilots a try last night.

-Up All Night: B
-Free Agents: D

Up All Night wasn't perfect. I'm not sure I love Maya Rudolph having such a big role on the show, doing her usual schtick. It wasn't an all-out assault of comedy, which is fine, but it could've been funnier. That said, I love Christina Applegate and Will Arnett, and there's potential for improvement. But the fact that this is in a death timeslot and Whitney is on after The Office is disheartening. Hopefully Whitney and Free Agents are gone by Christmas and NBC moves Up All Night to Thursdays before the damage is done.

Free Agents, on the other hand, sucked. Bad. Anthony Head was the only redeeming part of it, and he's only reprising his role from the original BBC series. Hank Azaria continues to suck in a lead role. Actually he's never impressed me in a non-animated role. He has zero charisma. Just all around a bad show. If it lasts past November sweeps, I'll be shocked.

I plan on watching both of those tonight - I missed them due to the "Big Brother" finale last night.

Ringer
8/10 -> B
I've pretty much said it all in the Ringer thread...


Up All Night
5/10 -> C-
Christina is charming, but Arnett is IMHO miscast and annoying. Not a single funny scene.


Free Agents
4/10 -> D
Terribly unfunny.

I was thinking that about Arnett. Should've went to someone else. Off the top of my head, too bad Chuck didn't end a little sooner. A good role for Zach Levi. I didn't hate the pilot as much as you, but the show needs work. For most of the shows I love, I rarely ever loved the pilot episode, so I'll give it a few weeks.

But yeah, Free Agents was painful. No potential at all. I'm not sure what it's about really.

So Free Agent was as horrible as its tv promos? Could have figured that one out but just curious why you would even watch it in the first place?

I never watched any promos. And I thought it was a comedy spy show. About agents searching for an agency to work for but don't have much luck. LOL :-). I won't assume much next time based solely on the name of the show...

A. Didn't see promos for it. I don't watch NBC that often and certainly don't watch promos.

B. I typically watch just about every pilot on network TV. There is certain stuff I'll avoid (Freddie Prinze Jr. vehicles tend to get ignored), but for the most part, I'll try it. Free Agents didn't seem that offensive when I read about it.

Just saw New Girl and Whitney.

-New Girl: B+

New Girl had lots of cute, funny moments. Zooey Deschanel is adorably awesome and the show is tons of potential. The male cast is good too, but 1/3rd is leaving after the pilot: Happy Endings' Damon Wayans Jr. I liked it anyway. I'll definitely watch again.

-Whitney: C

In the last ten years, I don't recall a TV show getting such a vitriolic reaction before it even airs. I have never seen Whitney Cummings do stand-up and don't plan on it. Besides, the pilot is peppered with glaringly obvious lines from her act. Anyway, the show starts out really bad. Just an assault of dialogue that sounds forced. As it progresses, the show improves, albeit slightly. The supporting cast isn't given a ton of screen time, but they're perfectly able actors. Jane Kaczmarek was a nice surprise, as I hadn't known she was on the show. The main problem lies in its star. She doesn't come across as likable in any way. In a time where funny women are as powerful as ever, she should be rising to the top on television, but she's not. She's about as charming as a bag of snakes. Anything funny is purely accidental on her part.

In the end, the pilot is an all-out assault of joke after joke after joke, and it's inevitable that a few lines would hit, but they're few and far between. Perhaps it's my tremendously low expectations, or the fact that Free Agents was so unwatchable, but Whitney wasn't as offensively bad as I expected. If it was on and I didn't have anything else to do, I'd try it again to see if it gets better. Can't say the same for Free Agents.

Pilot Round-Up
-New Girl: B+
-Up All Night: B
-Whitney: C
-Free Agents: D-

Thinking about doing some pilot reviews for the WOKJ mainsite. Downloading New Girl and Ringer right now

Up All Night had a good pilot. You can tell it has the potential to become a great show as it progresses, just like Community and Parks & Recreation.

I'm still thinking about Whitney, maybe more than any of the four pilots I watched today. It was not as awful as I had expected. I can't wait for everyone (anyone?) to watch it next week to judge for themselves. Maybe the dreadfulness of Free Agents and the generally good but not OMGamazing Up All Night and New Girl fooled me into believing Whitney wasn't that bad.

Loved "Up All Night." I'd give it a B+/A- most likely. It has a lot of potential and the cast is great.

"Free Agents" was dreadful. I turned it off halfway through.

You turned it off ten minutes too late.

The Secret Circle
6/10 -> C

Good setup, but slightly boring as it didn't add anything special to the whole witch lore. We've seen all of this in other TV shows/movies that dealt with witches. Now it's either a time for good pay offs (just like TVD does it) or it will turn out to be another cliche ridden supernatural show.

TV Pilots Scorecard so far:

8/10
01. Ringer

6/10
02. The Secret Circle

5/10
03. Up All Night

4/10
04. Free Agents

-Ringer: B+

Ringer is really good. I like the thriller aspects of it and the dark tone overall, and it's good to have Sarah Michelle Gellar back on TV, even though her acting didn't blow me away. Maybe because there were no real stark contrasts between either sister. But I can't help feeling there's a little something missing on the show. Maybe it's almost too dark. I don't want Buffy-style comedy or anything, but the dark feel gave it a bit of a depressing tone at times. As far as potential goes, it's dripping with it. Could go either way.

Pilot Roundup
-Ringer: B+
-New Girl: B+
-Up All Night: B
-Whitney: C
-Free Agents: F (can't help it... even Anthony Head's character was grating now that I remember it)

-The Secret Circle: C+

What works: Britt Robertson is a likable lead. She's not a downright star in the pilot, but she has the beginnings of a commanding presence. The first ten minutes were great. The idea of the show going forward is one I would like to revisit down the road. It's not something I'm planning on watching when everything is back on next week, but if I heard good things down the road, I could catch up eventually.

What doesn't work: most of the cast. Thomas Dekker has zero screen presence. He hasn't improved since TSCC. In fact, they could call him John Connor for all I care because that's the part he's playing. He reminds me of a low-rent, F-grade, 98% less talented Emile Hirsche. Aside from one or two bright spots, the rest of the cast sucks. They're indistinguishable. I'm not sure the plotline engaged me enough throughout. Again, if I hear of improvements, I could watch it again happily. But nothing grabbed me as an "I need to watch this every week" type of show.

Pilot Roundup
Ringer: B+
New Girl: B+
Up All Night: B
The Secret Circle: C+
Whitney: C
Free Agents: F

Consult the top of this page for next week's pilot premieres.