Nobody brags about devouring books by Danielle Steel or Candace Bushnell, but millions pass pleasurable beach hours that way.
Similarly, you don’t boast about consuming the saucy summer shows that are essentially eye candy for those who find turning glossy magazine pages too taxing. But you can’t spend the lazy stretch from Memorial Day to Labor Day catching up on “Masterpiece Theatre,” can you?
So how do you make it through the summer, after your favorite shows such as “24,” “Desperate Housewives” and “American Idol,” have packed it in until fall? Here is your hot-season survival guide:
1. “Project Runway,” on Bravo. This is the first summer premiere for the hot series. A marathon of past episodes airs beginning at 9 a.m. June 24 to whet your appetite for the July 12 debut. Fifteen up-and-coming fashion designers will compete to show in the renowned Bryant Park tents during New York’s Fashion Week. Heidi Klum is back. And, of course, you can purchase featured designs online.
2. “The Hills,” Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on MTV. A spinoff of “Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County,” which followed eight rich, beautiful teens, this half-hour neodocumentary series follows 19-year- old “Laguna” alum Lauren Conrad (“L.C.” to you) as the emotional blond studies fashion at L.A.’s Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, works at Teen Vogue and, not least, dates. (Of local note, Heidi Montag, a former Crested Butte resident, is Lauren’s roommate.)
3. “Tuesday Night Book Club,” on CBS. A reality-fest premiering Tuesday at 9 p.m. on KCNC-Channel 4, looks at suburban secrets in Scottsdale, Ariz. Calculated to be as diverting as “The Real Housewives of Orange County” with a gloss of “Desperate Housewives,” with seven middle-class women cast for their eagerness to say anything on camera. The seven have an array of problems on the home front. The husband of one woman is just out of rehab for an addiction, another married woman is unsure whether to run away with her boyfriend; a divorced mother of three, a beauty queen and karate champion, has trouble being vulnerable. Hint: They aren’t reading Proust.
4. “The 4400,” on USA. The show returns at 7 tonight with a two-hour season premiere. In Season 1, 4,400 abductees were returned to Earth with special powers (super strength, clairvoyance, telekinesis, healing touch). Seems they’ve been given powers that will be needed in order to save humankind in the future.
At the end of the first season, we learned they weren’t taken by aliens but by humans living hundreds of thousands of years in the future. Season 2 followed Diana Skouris (Jacqueline McKenzie) and Tom Baldwin (Joel Gretsch), agents in NTAC, National Threat Assessment Command, under boss Dennis Ryland (Peter Coyote), investigating the phenomenon.
Season 3 picks up seconds after baby Isabelle mysteriously transformed into a 20-year-old woman.
5. “Treasure Hunters,” on NBC. From the producers of “Project Runway,” a global adventure/mystery reality series has a two-hour debut at 7 p.m. June 18 on KUSA-Channel 9, then moves to 8 p.m. Mondays for 10 episodes. Teams of three compete in what sounds like a cross between “Amazing Race” and “Survivor,” following clues to buried treasure. They’ll use “folklore, fantasy and actual history as clues to solve an intricate puzzle.” Teams include “Air Force” (with two Highlands Ranch residents), “Southie Boys,” “Ex-CIA,” “Miss USA,” “Young Professionals” and “Grad Students.”
6. “America’s Got Talent,” on NBC. Simon Cowell’s production company has another idea, beginning at 7 p.m. June 21 on Channel 9: a large-scale talent show with Regis Philbin as host, and R&B singer Brandy (“Moesha”), “Baywatch’s” David Hasselhoff and British media maven Piers Morgan as judges. Like “Idol,” but with novelty acts competing for $1 million. The hour is slated for Wednesdays with a half-hour results show on Thursdays.
7. “Windfall,” on NBC. A repeat of the pilot airs at 9 tonight on Channel 9. Luke Perry and Jason Gedrick lead an ensemble drama about 20 friends who win a state lottery to become instant millionaires. Their newly acquired wealth shoves them into tricky interpersonal territory: It may alter marriages, destroy friendships and generally bring out the worst in everyone. From executive producer Laurie McCarthy (“Felicity,” “CSI: Miami”).
8. “Falcon Beach,” at 7 tonight on ABC Family. An hour-long Canadian drama about young folks coming of age in a fictional beach town. It’s also billed as a soap about the culture clash between summer visitors and townies. Honestly, it’s about hot young flesh in bathing suits.
TV critic Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-820-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com.
