Yanks winning format war

October 28, 2008 Four new series -- all created by American writers -- have been picked up for a full season so far: "Fringe" on Fox, "The Mentalist" at CBS and two spinoffs of old American series, the CW's "90210" and NBC's "Knight Rider." Despite being given some of the best real estate on the broadcast networks, format-based rookies have been stumbling. What was expected to be the battle of British imports "Eleventh Hour" and "Life on Mars" at 10 p.m. Thursdays has become the hour of the British also-rans, with the freshmen squandering their respective "CSI" and "Grey's Anatomy" lead-ins to fall behind 15-year veteran "ER."

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