Worst Promos Ever: ABC spent a small fortune touting the BROTHERS & SISTERS episode in which someone would die, but it was fans who felt ripped off when nobody actually bought the farm.
Worst Debut: Jimmy Fallon spent weeks courting geeks to LATE NIGHT, only to have first-week guests Justin Timberlake and Tina Fey prove either of them would have been better choices for the job.
Least Compelling Mystery: DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES spent an entire year on the wildly uninteresting, unsuspenseful Dave story.
Most Relatable Misunderstanding: What parent couldn’t relate when THE MIDDLE’s Brick truthfully told people that his mom had hit him with a beer bottle? Kids really do say the darndest things!
Biggest Blunder By A Network: The failed experiment we like to call THE JAY LENO SHOW.
Biggest Blunder By A Network (Runner-Up!): ABC shut down production on V after filming only four episodes, reportedly planning to fix what they saw as its problems. Audiences loved the show… and then lost it only a few short weeks later!
Writer Most In Need Of Reigning In: Yes, GLEE is one of the most delightful shows to come down the pike in ages. But could someone please teach creator Ryan Murphy a lesson or two in pacing and longterm story telling?
Biggest Cad: THE BACHELOR’s first single dad, Jason Mesnick, proposed to Melissa Rycroft… only to then dump her on AFTER THE FINAL ROSE in favor of runner up Molly Malaney, giving the show a huge ratings boost and instantly making him one of the most unpopular guys in the country.
Worst Soap: Under recently-removed head writer Chuck Pratt, ALL MY CHILDREN became downright unbearable. Here’s hoping that the incoming scribe, yet to be named, fixes the situation before the long-running sudser becomes the latest casualty of the soap-killing virus sweeping the networks.
Show That Should Be Better Than It Is: FLASHFORWARD’s premise is phenomenal, and it understands the importance of a weekly cliffhanger. And yet somehow… it just hasn’t found its groove.
Most Watered-Down Villain: ONE TREE HILL gave Dan a TV show and a bitchy wife… then had him go all do-gooder on us. 
Related:
• Our Top 10 TV Shows of 2009
• Our 2009 TV Year in Review (Part IV)
• Our 2009 TV Year in Review (Part III)
• Our 2009 TV Year in Review (Part II)
• Our 2009 TV Year in Review (Part I)