Next week, the networks will unveil their fall lineups. It seems this time of year gets a little more anxiety-ridden each year, as the networks continue to flounder.

Herewith, a look at each of the networks – how much help they really need, and how much they’ll likely seek out. Sorry in advance it's not a laff riot, but then, how funny can endlessly fretting over the finest nuances of a network schedule only to have much of the audience TiVo the shows so they can watch them whenever they want really be?

Oh, that's right: hilarious. So, even more apologies for the shoddy nature of this analysis, but then, I'm leaving town in some 30 hours and you should consider yourselves lucky to be getting anything out of me.

NBC (presenting its schedule Monday)

Programming holes:
All Sunday night, after football season ends.
Monday: 10-11 p.m.
Tuesday: 8-10 p.m.
Wednesday: 8-11 p.m., though “Medium” has been brought back and “Friday Night Lights” will likely be, as well.
Thursday: “Scrubs” would seem to be iffy. The prospective series “Area 52” would seem a nice fit with the evening’s other sitcoms. “ER’s” on life support and should probably go, but probably won’t.
Friday: Everything’s weak, but everytime NBC has replaced a bubble show on Friday nights with something else, the replacement show invariably does even worse.

Synopsis: NBC recently suffered through its lowest-rated week since the introduction of Nielsen “People Meters” 20 years ago, and, quite likely, in its history. Only one show – “Deal or No Deal” – had more than 10 million viewers. It’s bringing back “30 Rock” and perhaps “Friday Night Lights,” both of which averaged fewer than 7 million viewers on the season, a new lowest-rated renewal for the network. Thing is, most of NBC’s shows weren’t bad. Just misunderstood.

Advice: Prayer. And lots of it. After all, there are no atheists in a foxhole.

ABC (announcing Tuesday)

Programming holes:
Monday: 8-11 p.m. whenever “Dancing with the Stars” isn’t on.
Tuesday: 8-10 p.m. whenever “Dancing with the Stars”’ results show isn’t on.
Wednesday: 8-10 p.m.
Thursday: 10-11 p.m., though “October Road” – which one commenter to this blog brilliantly described as “The Sanjaya Malakar of TV dramas” – did less horribly than the other shows tried out in that timeslot.
Friday: 8-11 p.m.

Synopsis: It’s feast or famine for ABC, whose hit shows are huge hits and everything else is a thorough tank job. They’re bringing back “Men in Trees” despite subpar ratings.

Advice: Hope the hits don’t ebb as drastically as “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” did this year and something gains a little traction. The Americanization of the British “Footballers’ Wives” is just one of several dramas in development that seems a natural fit with the networks’ women-friendly programming. Scrap comedies, perhaps altogether (although “Arrested Development’s” Mitch Hurwitz tackling the hilarious British sitcom “The Thick of It,” about dense, incompetent politicians, sounds more than promising, you still wonder how ABC, who hasn’t succeeded with a smart sitcom in years, would lure it an audience).

CBS (up Wednesday)

Programming holes:
Sunday: 8-9 p.m.
Monday: 8-9 p.m.
Tuesday: 10-11 p.m.
Wednesday: 8-9 p.m.; 10 p.m.’s been looking a big slack of late, as well.
Friday: Fairly acceptable, though some reports have “Close to Home” (whose ratings have been comparable to those around it) on the bubble.

Synopsis: Despite more than enough evidence that audiences passionately ignore shows about Hollywood and the media, five of CBS’s sitcoms in development are set in that milieu. Dumb move, CBS. (Ah, well, the others didn’t sound too promising, either.) Likewise, three of the prospective dramas have paranormal themes.

Advice: Fortunately, they have few holes to fill. Word is CBS will try to prolong the lives of “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race” by featuring them only one time each next season, likely in “Survivor’s” timeslot. Seems a reasonable gambit. The drama in development veers from very traditional to very bizarre (“Babylon Fields:” “Sardonic, apocalyptic comedic drama in which the dead are resurrected and try to resume their former lives. As a result, lives are regained, families restored and old wounds are reopened”). Expect traditional to win the day, particularly given one show, the bounty-hunter drama “Skip Tracer,” comes from Mitchell Burgess and Robin Greene, fresh off of “The Sopranos.” “Viva Laughlin!” – a take on the terrifically stylish BBC miniseries “Viva Blackpool” executive-produced, in part, by Hugh Jackman – sounds like a great idea, but it would probably be impossible to sustain the level of quality over 22 episodes.

Fox (Thursday)

Programming holes:
September through mid-January in general.
Sunday: 7-8 p.m., 9-10 p.m.
Thursday 9-10 p.m.
Friday 8-10 p.m.

Synopsis: Though it never seems to hurt the network in the long run, Fox executives really would like to find a formula for getting viewers to swarm to the network before “American Idol” and “24” return in January. It developed a whopping 15 sitcoms this spring (more shows than The CW bothered to develop in total) and an additional 10 dramas, so it likely has the most promising new shows to choose from.

Advice: If only they can find the right way to schedule them. Fox must get away from plugging every hole in its lineup with “House” reruns. It still seems to me that some kind of limited, over-the-top reality event is the way to go in the fall. And then unleash a blitzkrieg of new shows in January, when “Idol’s” back to help promote them.

The CW (also Thursday)

Programming holes
All Sunday
All Monday (except maybe “Everybody Hates Chris,” which really crash-landed this season)
All Tuesday
Wednesday 9-10 p.m.
Thursday 9-10 p.m.

Which means The CW is solid for a whole four hours of its schedule (“America’s Next Top Model,” “Smallville,” which to be fair is fading, and its wrasslin’ show). But the network scarcely developed enough new shows to plug all those holes.

Advice: Oh, I dunno – some insurance-fraud scheme, perhaps?

This entry is dedicated to Fred, a commenter who didn’t much care for the Karl Rove Emails thing and clamored for an entry on the upfronts.