29 new shows are headed for your TV

Pancho's adopted son/son-in-law, Alex Vega (Jimmy Smits), is dead set against the sale; Pancho's biological son, Frank (Nestor Carbonell),af is for it — but he's got ulterior motives.

There are all sorts of family members and all sorts of subplots to play out — an absolute requirement for a prime-time soap.

What's to like? "Cane" has plenty of possibilities — it could end up being a very good soap opera. It's certainly nice to see an underrepresented minority get more TV exposure, but it's also nice that this could have been a show about a family of any ethnicity.

What's not to like? The pilot spends so much time explaining and setting up the plot that it doesn't spend enough time establishing the characters. There's going to have to be more character development for this to work.

Will it work? It's about 50-50 for how this will go. But don't underestimate Jimmy Smits' appeal.

Debuts: Tuesday, Sept. 25

Wednesdays

KID NATION (Wednesdays, 7 p.m., CBS/Ch. 2) is a "reality" show about 40 kids who "rebuild" a New Mexico ghost town and build their own society. They've got to organize and do all the work themselves.

Nobody is voted off, although some of the kids (who are between the ages of 8 and 15) choose to leave. Everybody gets $5,000 to participate and, in each episode, one kid is chosen by his/her peers to receive a gold star — a real gold star worth $20,000.

What's to like? The kids are appealing and the show itself is well-produced.

What's not to like? Gee, where to start? There's the fact that these kids were exploited by producers who apparently skirted child-labor laws. There's the fact that this is yet another "reality" show that apparently plays fast and loose with the concept of "reality." There's the fact that these kids were taken out of school to make a TV show. There's the fact that 8-year-olds were tossed into a situation where they'd have to deal with 15-year-olds. And using kids to attract ratings is kind of distasteful in general.

Will it work? I wouldn't be surprised if the show does fairly well in the ratings. But given all the bad press it's getting — and how difficult it might be to find somewhere to shoot another season now that New Mexico has closed gaps in its child-labor laws — I'd be somewhat surprised if there's a second season.

Debuts: Wednesday, Sept. 19

PUSHING DAISIES (Wednesdays, 7 p.m., ABC/Ch. 4) is nothing short of magical. It's like a storybook with brightly colored pictures, a narrator and characters who feel like they just stepped out of a fairy tale.