More new summer programming and the first show debuting tonight, NBC's "Save Me" (8 and 8:30 tonight), offers a reminder that everything that's golden during upfronts week sometimes loses its luster in the eyes of network executives before it ever airs. NBC announced "Save Me" as a midseason series in May 2012. Now it's being burned off in the summer.

(This is a good time to note that not every broadcast network show airing in the summer is a dud. Some shows, like CBS's "Under the Dome," are actually developed specifically for the summer. Not all shows are created equal but when a program has been sitting on the shelf for a year, you know the network has lost confidence in it.)

Anne Heche stars in "Save Me" as Beth Harper, who chokes on a sandwich, has a near-death experience and then comes to believe that God is speaking to her. And she does know things people are thinking that they have not said to her.

Ostensibly a comedy, "Save Me" is more quirky than outright funny. It almost feels like a weird, little indie film if indie films were somewhat flat and predictable. And "Save Me" certainly doesn't fit with any of NBC's other single-camera comedies. This is why it's getting the summer send-off.

Read about Fox's "Does Someone Have to Go?" after the jump. ...

We reported last month on the season two premiere date for Pittsburgh-set TBS sitcom "Sullivan & Son" (10 p.m. June 13) despite production delays stemming from an incident involving star Steve Byrne. (At the time that news about Byrne broke, I e-mailed him to ask for comment and he replied but said he couldn't say anything more beyond, "Go Pens!")

Last week I chatted with him on what he said was his first day without having his mouth wired shut in six weeks.

Three episodes had already been filmed when he was “attacked by a cab driver” in Los Angeles. Byrne’s jaw was broken and wired shut and he was on a liquid diet for the duration. His jaw was broken the same day Penguins star Sidney Crosby suffered the same injury in late March.

“I was almost judging my own recovery time line by his,” Mr. Byrne said. “He got back a week earlier than I did.”

Byrne could not discuss specifics of the incident with the cabbie, calling it “a pending legal matter.”

Learn which season one guest star will be back in season two of "Sullivan" and watch a video of the (politically incorrect) cast on the season two premiere date after the jump. ...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- In Sunday's TV Week I previewed Wednesday's first-season finale of ABC's "Nashville" (10 p.m., WTAE), which has been renewed for a second season.

Actress Judith Hoag, who plays Rayna's sister, Tandy Wyatt (pictured at right with series star Connie Britton), offered this preview of what the finale holds for her character. She also explained that the Wyatt business empire is far larger than the show has ever let on.

“I am groomed to take over the [family] business for when my father either steps down or passes away,” Hoag said. “But I think what you’ll see is somebody who is ready to stop living in the shadow of the more powerful people in her life.”

Read more after the jump. ...

The 2012-13 TV season doesn't end until Wednesday but already the broadcast networks are jumping into summer mode debuting a Canadian import (ABC's "Motive") and a homegrown burn-off sitcom (Fox's "The Goodwin Games") tonight.

"Motive" (10 tonight, then moves to 9 p.m. Thursday) is another procedural crime drama with a format twist that ABC touts but but the difference worth paying attention to is the casualness with which the police investigators go about their business investigating murders. It's completely believable that cops would get a bit jaded and treat a crime scene like a day at the office, yet it's not a portrayal you see very often on TV cop shows.

For that alone, "Motive" stands out a bit. It doesn't reinvent the genre by any stretch but this lighter tone is noteworthy.

The big format shift is less of a revelation: Instead of viewers waiting until the end of the episode to learn who the killer is, we're shown up front the identity of the killer and the victim. From there to the end of the episode that explains why the killer did it, there's a lot of jumping back and forth through time as the pieces of the puzzle come together. If you're a fan of journeys rather than endings, "Motive" is for you. But if you like to play a guessing game about the mystery, well, you may be out of luck.

Detective Angie Flynn (Kristin Lehman, who last played a campaign adviser on "The Killing") and her partner, Oscar Vega (Louis Ferreira, formerly Justin Louis of "Stargate Universe"), are the ones putting the pieces together as they chase down the killer. In the premiere, that killer is a high school student.

Flynn has a son (Cameron Bright) so "Motive" does go home with her a bit but it's mostly about the case. "Motive" is most interesting when Lauren Holly ("NCIS") is on screen as Dr. Betty Rogers, a medical examiner with a wicked sense of humor."Morbidity suggests he sprouted wings two-to-three hours ago," Dr. Rogers says when assessing a dead body.

Read about "Goodwin Games" after the jump. ...