"Pushing Daisies" ranked best new show in TV poll

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - After a U.S. prime-time television season notable for its lack of breakout hits, the supernatural fantasy "Pushing Daisies" emerged as the favorite new show of viewers in an AOL poll released on Tuesday.

The ABC series about a pie-maker possessing the power to bring the dead back to life with a single touch -- and to dispatch them again with a second touch-- ranked as the best new TV show among 24 percent of survey respondents.

The CW network's hormone-fueled teen drama "Gossip Girl" was No. 2 with 20 percent of the 1.4 million votes cast online for the AOL Television poll.

While neither show achieved bona fide hit status in its freshman season, "Pushing Daisies" was a critical favorite and garnered a Golden Globe nomination, while "Gossip Girl" generated buzz with its provocative "OMFG" promo campaign.

The new CBS comedy "The Big Bang Theory" ranked No. 3 with 19 percent of the vote, while NBC's "Chuck," about a computer geek recruited as a secret agent, and the Fox sci-fi thriller "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," tied for fourth place with 15 percent each.

Strangely, the season's most watched new scripted show according to Nielsen Media Research, ABC's "Samantha Who?," starring Christina Applegate as a woman with amnesia, failed to even crack the top five in the AOL survey.

"Samantha Who?" averaged 11.4 million viewers over 16 episodes and ranked No. 29 overall during the 2007-08 broadcast season, compared with "Pushing Daisies," which averaged 9.5 million viewers from just nine episodes and ranked No. 52 among all shows, Nielsen Media Reported.

"'Pushing Daisies' is one of those sweet little shows that people really seemed to rally around, even in a limited dose," said AOL Television editor in chief Scott Robson. The show, which failed to return to the airwaves following the Hollywood writers strike, has been renewed by ABC for a second season.

Not so surprisingly, one of television's biggest bombs last year, the ABC comedy "Cavemen," which was canceled after just six episodes, was the overwhelming choice among AOL survey respondents (73 percent) as the worst new show of the season.

In other AOL survey findings, the Fox medical hit "House" ranked as the season's best drama; the bawdy CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men" was voted best comedy; NBC's self-parody "30 Rock" was voted the most underrated show; and the ABC hospital drama "Grey's Anatomy" won the competition for sexiest cast.

NBC's "Las Vegas" drew the most votes for which canceled show would be most missed by viewers, and the ABC romantic reality series "The Bachelor" ranked No. 1 as the show regarded as "SO over."

(Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)