[UPDATE: Check out our up to date Complete 2008 Fall TV Preview!]

I was wondering about all the news out and about regarding what’s coming up on television next season with regards to fantasy, sci-fi and action type shows, so I tracked down the announcements from various networks that distribute them to whet our appetites via the “upfronts“. EH? I know. You’re asking, “What’s an upfront“?

Upfronts are when networks publicly announce their new shows to the press and the advertising world. It’s during the upfronts that networks give advertisers the chance to get advertising time at a discount, versus paying premium dollar during the season. It could also be looked at as the time when advertisers hedge their bets with shows that look promising to them. Basically, get in on the action up in front of the new season. Sadly, it’s the driving force behind everything we love and love to hate about TV programming.

The upfronts can also give you some insight into the minds of the network execs and the trends they either think will happen or help actually develop. By trends I mean setting the mark. IE: After ABC’s Lost or Fox’s Prison Break became hot commodities, we saw a rash of similar type programs pop up in the ensuing seasons.

With that being said let’s go through the developments that have come out of the upfronts, where I focus on shows on the tube that you the Screen Rant reader might be interested in knowing about, with no particular order to the networks:

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I’ve previously written a review on Sci Fi Channels’ Ghost Hunters with a bit of incredulity as to their success for constantly finding ghosts, here on Screen Rant.

The ensuing comments showed me people like the show more than I expected, and sure enough, the ratings must have warranted the same perspective, as the show is getting it’s own spinoff, called Ghost Hunters International.