OK, TV fans, it’s time to get off the fence and make a decision on what deserves your eyeballs.

Granted, the networks always throw a gaggle of programs up against the wall to see what sticks, but now they’re finally putting their money where their PR is.

A number of new series are finally getting the word on whether they will be around all season. These days, if a new program doesn’t show promise right away - and that means winning its time slot or at least improving on its lead-in show - the plug is usually pulled and the sets torn down.

Already history in this young season are Head Cases (Fox ), Inconceivable (NBC ), Just Legal (the WB ) and Sex, Love & Secrets (UPN ). Maybe one of those was your favorite new program. Well, too bad. Suck it up and move on.

It’s frustrating. Why should you invest your precious time in a new show if even the network doesn’t have faith in it ?

In simpler times a new series was given a season, maybe two, to find its legs. If today’s rules applied back then, there would never have been a Cheers or Seinfeld. Both sitcoms wallowed in the Nielsen basement for quite some time before making a move.

Here’s the news on several series. Gone : The Simple Life.

Fox has announced that the “reality” series starring Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie won’t be returning at midseason.

The show had a cute premise the first season. Take two spoiled, pampered, bratty Beverly Hills “celebutantes” and plop them down on a farm in Arkansas and watch as the hilarity ensues.

The series, which premiered in December 2003, ended up showcasing the decent, hardworking folks of Altus and the salt-of-the-earth Leding family, which hosted the girls.

The show may have been painfully choreographed, but it was cute. Then, like unwanted relatives, it stayed too long. The second season was tolerable and the third was tiresome.

It didn’t help a possible fourth season that Paris and Nicole have had a most public tiff lately.

As late as July, Fox entertainment head honcho Peter Liguori told TV critics that the network had plans to renew the series based on the fact that both young ladies were engaged. Paris no longer is.

For the record, Fox says the girls’ getting dumped had nothing to do with their ongoing cat fight. Instead, Fox has a surplus of outstanding programs in the bin.

Chief among the goodies are American Idol and 24, returning in January. Other worthy shows are House, Bones, Prison Break, Arrested Development and The ..

“We did not see a place for The Simple Life on our schedule this season,” a Fox news release said.

The show’s producers hope to shop the series around to other networks, but it’s time to let the thing go. It might pop up on a niche cable network, but its days in the big leagues are probably over.

Staying : Bones, The War at Home.

Meanwhile, Fox has announced these two freshmen will be staying for a second semester this season.

Bones, starring David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel as crime busters, has averaged just under 9 million viewers each week. It airs at 7 p. m. Tuesdays.

The War at Home, airing at 7 : 30 p. m. Sundays in the middle of Fox’s funny animated series, is pulling in 8. 5 million viewers. I don’t care for the hackneyed parents vs. kids humor, but that’s just me. Staying : Ghost Whisperer, How I Met Your Mother, Criminal Minds.

CBS has given full-season orders to this trio of newcomers. Criminal Minds stars Mandy Patinkin as a crime buster at 8 p. m. Wednesdays. About 11. 3 million are tuning in each week.

Mother, an ensemble sitcom featuring Josh Radnor, is drawing more than 10 million viewers at 7 : 30 Monday.

And Ghost Whisperer is a

sur-Out : The Comeback, starring Lisa Kudrow, will not come back on HBO next year. In : The 4400 will return with 13 new episodes to USA Network next summer. In : HBO has ordered a second season of Rome. The 12 new episodes debut next fall.

In : My Name Is Earl (8 p. m. Tuesday, NBC ) has a full-season order of 22 episodes. The TV column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. E-mail : mstorey@arkansasonline. com prise Friday nights at 7. Critics like its star, Jennifer Love Hewitt, just because she’s so darned perky. But the show is silly and way heavy on the Highway to Heaven stuff.

Surprise ! Lots of folks - about 11 million each week - enjoy spiritual drama. By comparison, Joan of Arcadia was getting three million fewer viewers in the same slot last season. In : It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has been picked up by FX for a second season. Out : Starved will not be back on FX next year. In : Comedy Central has ordered 42 new episodes of South Park. That means the show is set through 2008.