Ever since reality TV became a hot trend, summer has been the season when the networks serve up so many of these guilty pleasures. But these days, the pickings are indeed slim. And viewers aren't stopping to sample most of these these easy-bake summer confections.

CBS' "Tuesday Night Book Club" lasted two episodes. ABC's "Master of Champions" was executed last week.

And "American Idol" clone "The One: Making a Superstar" earned the dubious distinction of achieving some of the lowest ratings in ABC history.

NBC's own "Idol" copycat "StarTomorrow" premiered Monday. The audition was a special broadcast airing of the series, which was developed by David Foster exclusively for www.NBC.com.

Given the paltry interest, the Internet is the right place for it.

And ABC's Fire Island-set "One Ocean View" — a "Laguna Beach" for twentysomethings — debuted Monday to just 3.6 million viewers, according to preliminary numbers provided by Nielsen Media Research.

In short: The broadcast networks aren't giving viewers many reasons to turn on their sets during the sweltering shut-in months of summer.

"Sometimes you just wonder what they're thinking," said Brad Adgate, director of research at Horizon Media. "They do put on some lemons."

Nina Tassler, president of entertainment at CBS, seemed to dismiss the "Book Club" debacle as a meaningless summer fling.

"Summer is about experimenting with different things," she said recently. "It was an attempt to do something different and we're sorry it didn't turn out."

(CBS' other summer reality show, "Rock Star," is doing respectably well.)

Reality TV is so tempting for the networks because it can be churned out cheaply and quickly and usually attracts the younger viewers that network suits get so excited about.

But the broadcast networks are running the reality race with cable. And the Internet is rife with amateur video.

"I think it's a saturation of the genre," said Adgate. "How many original ideas can you have?"

There's no substitute for quality, and characters certainly help. Fox's "Hell's Kitchen," starring the combustible Gordon Ramsay, has been a bright spot this summer.

So has "So You Think You Can Dance."

But viewers are hungering for something more than just empty calories.

This summer, viewer defection to cable — which doesn't close up shop in the summer — has grown.

USA's "Psych," TNT's "Nightmares & Dreamscapes," Sci-Fi's "Eureka" and ABC Family's "Kyle XY" are all new scripted shows that premiered this summer.

And there's another important distinction that sets them apart from the reality pabulum: People are actually watching them.