16 of Fall's 31 New Shows Set to Debut

NEW YORK - The broadcast networks will roll out half of their new fall series next week, launching the 2005-06 season with 16 premieres in seven days and the usual mix of high hopes and short leashes.

The week opened Thursday with CBS's "Survivor: Guatemala" — the franchise's 11th edition, set among Mayan ruins — and continues Sunday with the Emmy Awards on CBS, giving the networks a promotional runway they are not shy about using.

The marquee newcomers are a pair of apprenticeships: Martha Stewart's spinoff of "The Apprentice" debuts Wednesday on NBC, days before Donald Trump's original returns, and ABC's "Commander in Chief" installs Geena Davis as the first female president Tuesday.

Copycat years produce copycat schedules: after "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" saved ABC last season, every network ordered eerie mysteries and soapy suburbia. This fall brings three separate shows about aliens and the sea — "Surface," "Invasion" and "Threshold" — and two sitcoms set at airports.

Returning favorites get new tests: "Everybody Hates Chris," Chris Rock's childhood comedy, anchors UPN's move to Thursday, and "Alias" begins its final season as its star, Jennifer Garner, headlines her first feature lead.

The season opens with the networks' audiences still shrinking — cable and the Internet keep chipping away — but with an unusual dose of critical enthusiasm for a few pilots, particularly UPN's "Everybody Hates Chris" and Fox's "Prison Break," which got a head start in August.

Premiere week is a blood sport: of last fall's 30-plus new series, only a handful survived to a second season. "A show has about three weeks to prove it belongs," a veteran scheduler said. "The audience decides faster than the network does."