Research firm predicts fall hits (MWK)

By Nancy Tartaglione

A New York-based research company has completed a comprehensive review of the fall TV season and determined that CBS' "NCIS: Los Angeles" should score big ratings Tuesdays at 9pm while NBC's "The Jay Leno Show" could prove to be a powerhouse at 10 pm - particularly on Tuesdays.

NewMediaMetrics' predictive analysis, says Mediaweek, shows that ABC's "FlashForward," NBC's hospital drama "Trauma"; Fox's "Family Guy" spinoff "The Cleveland Show" and the CW's "Vampire Diaries" all have promise. Other new series flagged by NewMediaMetrics are ABC's "The Forgotten," Fox musical comedy "Glee" and ABC's "Cougar Town" and "Eastwick."

In all, ABC boasts nine of the top 20 new shows, according to the NMM analysis. Last year, NMM's picks resulted in an 86.4% accuracy rate.

In addition to Tuesdays, NMM believes the primetime "Leno" experiment will get good traction on Thursday nights as well.

NMM co-founders Gary Reisman and Denise Larson noted that while no one has seen a final blueprint for the new Leno program, the elevated expectations are a function of viewers' "emotional attachment" to the comedian, explains Mediaweek.