Every year I get excited for a new fall television season, hoping to find just one or two new shows in which some time might be worth investing. Usually I end up watching at least a couple of terrible shows that looked good in the previews but ended up sucking. Here are the ten shows I’ve got my eye on this year to various degrees listed in order from more borderline possibilities to shows I’m almost certain will be pretty good. Enjoy.

10. America’s Toughest Jobs NBC Monday, August 25th 9/8c

The creator/executive producer of “Deadliest Catch” and “Ice Road Truckers” Thom Beers is involved in this ultimate reality show that is a competition between 13 men and women to see who can survive the toughest jobs out there. The jobs range from Crab Fishing, where the fatality rate is 90 times that of an average worker, to Search and Rescue, where temperature, altitude and hurricane-force winds can make the work especially dangerous. The competitors must learn the job and work alongside the pros before their new boss and co-workers determine if they were a success or they failed and must be sent home. The annual salary of each job will be added to the pot after each week and the last man or woman standing will take it home. This is worth watching just to experience the excitement of such sweet jobs in which only an elite few can actually succeed.

9. The Ex-List CBS Fridays 9/8c

Elizabeth Reaser, who was the smooshed face girl and love interest of Korev on “Grey’s Anatomy,” stars in the show where she learns from a psychic that she has already met her soul mate. She must then enlist the help of friends to recall every guy she’s ever dated, befriended or even briefly encountered in her lifetime to figure out which one is the one. This show is worth because Reaser is much more attractive with her face unsmooshed and the concept of trying to track down your soul mate who you’ve already met is a new and intriquing sci-fi-ish concept for a comedy.

8. Eleventh Hour CBS Thursdays 10/9c

The show is a science based drama where a biophysicist is brought in to solve scientific crises and oddities for the government. The trailer shows him trying to track down a woman pregnant with a clone of someone’s dead son who’s going to die. It’s going to be worth watching because of the science oddities themselves but it will be made even better by the crime element.

7. Kath & Kim NBC Thursday, October 9th 8:30/7:30c

Kath & Kim at it’s face seems like normal sit-com dreck, but this one might be different. The comedy hopes to duplicate the success of the Australian version, that had a cult fan base up until the end of the fourth and last season in 2007. Molly Shannon is finally back from wherever she went after Saturday Night Live and she plays Selma Blair’s mom. Blair is returning home because her marriage is over, O-V-U-R. It’s a show that will bring the laughs.

6. My Own Worst Enemy NBC Monday, October 13th 10/9c

Christian Slater stars in the show being described as a modern day Jekyll & Hyde mixed with Jason Bourne elements. On one side, there’s Henry. A middle-class guy living an unexciting life with a wife, two kids and a minvan in the suburbs. Edward, on the other hand, speaks 13 languages, runs a four-minute mile and is trained to kill. The problem is, they share the same body. The show is about the barrier between the two disappearing as Henry tries to figure out how to survive Edward’s dangerous existence. The Jason Bourne comparison was enough to make this a good show but just watching to see how the two become one sounds pretty interesting.

5. In Harm’s Way The CW Sunday, September 21st 7/6c

This show seems similar to America’s Toughest Jobs but this doesn’t feature a competition. The executive producer of Dirty Jobs, American Chopper and Survivor made this program to showcase jobs like avalanche hunters and Coast Guard rescue swimmers being done by everyday people. It’s hosted by Hunter Ellis, who is a former Navy Fighter Pilot and also appeared on Survivor: Marquesas. This show will be worth watching because it has different jobs from America’s Toughest Jobs and it really focuses on the tasks of the job instead of the competition aspect.

4. Crusoe 2-hour Premiere NBC Friday, October 17th 8/7c

The show is based on the legendary novel by Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe where and his native friend Friday get stranded on a desert island for 28 years and must struggle to survive. Crusoe keeps going with the hopes of seeing his beloved wife Susannah again and the love story between the two is also expanded on as the series develops. This is a show that won’t suck because it will have a bunch of elements working for it: history, a love story, adventure, and excellent landscape (the show filmed in the United Kingdom, South Africa and the Seychelles). Think of it as a something for everyone type show ie. you can convince your girlfriend to watch it and she’ll get hooked as much as you.

3. Do Not Disturb FOX Wednesday, September 10th 9:30/8:30c

“Do Not Disturb” is a show based on the going-ons in a once-popular New York City hotel, that is seen through the eyes of its employees. It has a few things going for it right off the bat. Jason Bateman (“Arrested Development,” “Juno”) will be applying his knowledge of comedy directing the pilot and some familiar faces like Jerry O’Connell and Niecy Nash (“Reno 911”) will be featured. Nash and O’Connell will draw you in and their great comedic timing will leave you laughing.

2. Life on Mars ABC Thursday, October 9th 10/9c

The science fiction police drama is based on the BBC hit which ran from January 2006 to April 2007. The show follows a detective who is hit by a car in 2006 and when he comes to, is in 1973. Is he insane, in a coma, or has he actually traveled back in time? No seems to know but if the time travel element isn’t enough to grab you, check it out for the dramatic irony that the show uses in form of jokes about a future the audience already knows.

1. Fringe FOX Tuesday, September 9th 8/7c

J.J. Abrams, who co-created Felicity, Alias and Lost, is involved in this project and considering the success of his previous shows, this one will follow a similar path. The show has a focus that according to its website will “thrill, terrify and explore the blurring line between science fiction and reality.” It starts with a research scientist who has been institutionalized for the past 20 years, his son and an FBI agent who brings them back together. It’s described as a cross between The X-Files, Altered States and The Twilight Zone and with Abrams at the helm, it likely won’t disappoint.