Monday morning I sat on my couch and flipped through the television channels in hopes of finding some sort of good show to watch. This actually is a pretty hard thing to do in the morning, and so I stumbled upon “Live with Regis and Kelly.”

Being a big Regis fan (a trait that I picked up from my grandmother), I decided to stop and see who the special guest was. It turned out to be some crazy dentist from New York, and I immediately found myself confused as to why this man was on the show.

However, it quickly came to my knowledge that this man had been on the third installment of the show “Survivor” and was voted off last Thursday.

“What? When did this happen?” I thought. “I must be way out of the loop.”

But then I realized that if the loop still embraced “Survivor,” then I was fine not being a part of it. In fact, I am fine with not being a part of the television loop because the one that exists right now is pretty bleak.

Out of the top 30 ratings grabbers from the week of Oct. 15-21, I watched only three of the shows, and two of those shows were baseball playoff games. In fact, the only things I get really excited about watching anymore are Bears games and the intensity of baseball playoff games.

Recently, I also have tried to view more of the Game Show Network, but I flat out refuse to waste my time on the Cartoon Network, which doesn’t even show “G.I. Joe” or “He-Man.”

At fault for the dismal state of television right now are the network channels such as ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX and their poor primetime lineups. The new shows just don’t have that “I must watch” feeling, and many of the old ones like “Frasier,” “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “ER” should have been canceled last season and maybe even before.

The only shows worth watching anymore are “Friends,” “Ed” and “Simpsons” reruns. Of the new shows this fall, the only ones that appear to be worth any time at all are “Smallville,” “24” and “The Tick.”

Yet, I just cannot figure out why primetime television isn’t appealing anymore. Sure, it could be because of poor writing and acting, but the more I watch TV the more I realize that the reason why the quality of television shows seems to be going down is because no matter how hard I try, I still end up watching CNN and “CNN Headline News.”

Yes, the “West Wing” is a good show, but the real thing is unfolding every minute on the major news channels. And I fall into a zombie-like state and consume all the information that I can. I read the scrolling updates at the bottom of the screen when CNN is on, and then I turn the channel to “Headline News” and read its updates.

I even know that both channels usually go to commercial at the same time.

This is reality TV. “Survivor” is not.

And neither are all the other reality shows that the networks threw at us this year. Simply, the latest developments on the war on terrorism are more interesting and more important than who is mad at whom on “Love Cruise: The Maiden Voyage.”

So where does that leave us?

Soon the World Series will be over, and the Bears are only on once a week, which leaves a lot of time in between. What is needed is a show to carry the torch and become a “must see” hit. “Friends” still has that feel, but with it likely being its last year, something new needs to come along.

We need those big hit shows to dominate office room talk, to plug up our radio airwaves and to be spread across newspaper entertainment sections.

We need those momentary stays against reality, but when shows aren’t providing entertainment, we are left going back to reality.

And if networks can’t create new shows to capture our hearts and minds, then maybe they should just bring back some shows from the past. Because, right now I find myself craving “The Wonder Years.”

Maybe I crave it because it could provide me with a little innocence in a world that no longer is, or because it actually used political and social themes while remaining funny, instead of a bunch of sexual jokes.

But most importantly, you could forget about everything else when you watched it. But unfortunately right now, our realities are just too hard to forget.

So, please TV, give me something good to watch. I need it.