The Best of the Rest

For Entertainment Weekly's top 10 midseason picks, check out 10 New Shows to Watch.

Emily's Reasons Why Not (ABC, Jan. 9)
Heather Graham does her best Carrie Bradshaw as Emily, a single gal in publishing who lives by self-imposed guidelines (a.k.a. ''reasons why not'') to survive dating in Los Angeles.

South Beach (UPN, Jan. 11)
Boys, boobs, and booze come together in this nighttime soap exec-produced by Jennifer Lopez. Vanessa Williams leads the cast as the owner of a swank Miami hotel where two New York knuckleheads (Marcus Coloma and Chris Johnson) try to start a new life.

Hustle (AMC, Jan. 14)
AMC's first foray into scripted drama follows the glam-bang world of London con artists, including Adrian Lester (Primary Colors) and Robert Vaughn (The Man From U.N.C.L.E.).

Love Monkey (CBS, Jan. 17)
Ed's Tom Cavanagh stars as a New York record exec swinging from bad relationship to bad relationship (title make sense now?). Arrested Development's Judy Greer is his best friend who could be The One — but that would be too easy, wouldn't it?

Skating With Celebrities (Fox, Jan. 18)
A reality competition featuring, among others, toothy Olympian Nancy Kerrigan and Full House's Dave Coulier as a skating pair. Oh, Fox, you make it hurt so good.

Get This Party Started (UPN, Jan. 24)
LC will be sooo jealous: Breakout Laguna Beach star Kristin Cavallari and former Extra ''correspondent'' Ethan Erickson host this reality series devoted to throwing fabulous parties for deserving people. Pick me! Pick me!

8th & Ocean (MTV, March)
Cameras follow 10 aspiring male and female models living in an apartment building in Miami. It makes Laguna Beach look positively profound. Translation: We can't wait.

The Real Housewives (Bravo, March 7)
Bravo openly rides ABC's coattails with this reality series that chronicles the lives of five regular stay-at-home moms, one of whom just happens to be a former Playboy Bunny.

Big Love (HBO, March)
HBO's new dramedy finds Bill Paxton playing a modern-day polygamist juggling three wives: Chloë Sevigny, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Jeanne Tripplehorn. But Paxton does not play a Mormon. We repeat: He's not a Mormon. Don't send us hate mail, Latter-Day Saints.

Black. White. (FX, March)
Ice Cube and R.J. Cutler exec-produce this reality series in which a black family and a white family are made over to look like the other race — à la C. Thomas Howell in Soul Man — for six weeks.

Thief (FX, March)
Homicide's Andre Braugher finds himself on the wrong side of the law as a man who keeps his bank-robbing habit secret from his friends and family.

so noTORIous (VH1, April 2)
Tori Spelling finally admits her life is hilarious: She stars as a sitcom version of herself in VH1's first attempt at scripted television — if you don't count the 200 incarnations of I Love the 80s.

The Evidence (ABC, spring)
Producer John Wells (ER, The West Wing) tries to shake up the standard police procedural by starting each episode with the evidence log, and then flashing back to the crime. Melrose Place's Rob Estes stars as the lead detective on the case.

The Bedford Diaries (The WB, spring)
Students at a New York university (including Gilmore Girls' bad boy Milo Ventimiglia) keep video logs of their randy thoughts for a sex course taught by rakish Professor Macklin (Matthew Modine).

Conviction (NBC, spring)
Law & Order creator Dick Wolf executive-produces this series focusing on young district attorneys navigating their way through their first big cases. Former Law & Order: SVU star Stephanie March will reprise her role as Alexandra Cabot, now boss to the young prosecutors, including Sex, Love & Secrets' Eric Balfour.