The fall TV season is settling into place and while there don't seem to be any runaway hits ("Runaway" on the CW has already been shuffled to a new night, Ray Liotta's "Smith" has already been canceled and the "24" rip-offs don't seem high-octane) there are still treasures to be found.

The asap staff surveyed the programming grid to pick out the boldest, the brightest and the most striking new characters, including one who has, lamentably, already been yanked off the air.

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Name: Jordan McDeere

Show: "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" (NBC)

She's got character because: Let's set aside the fact that Amanda Peet is too impossibly young and gorgeous to be a network president. It's television, people, what do you expect?

With her coolly appraising eyes and sly smile, Jordan McDeere is that most rare of beasts on the small screen: a role model.

This is a relief. She breaks free from the well-established archetypes for women in the workplace: the prat-falling ingenue (to wit, Ally McBeal) and the hard-driving she-devil (Murphy Brown).

She is unnaturally self-possessed, with little care about what anyone thinks. When told a focus group doesn't like the show, she responds, "We're paying people 40 dollars and a sandwich to tell us how to do our jobs?"

Peet has the look of someone holding a special secret (something like "I'm just that hot.") And some viewers might say she crosses that thin line between confident and smug.

But seen as a small flag in the wind of our culture, she is a sign that it is no longer winsome for working women to be idiots. And she shows that women need no longer be mannish to be powerful.

We have seen girls in women's clothing and men in women's clothing. McDeere is a woman in women's clothing.

Isn't that refreshing?

-- Lisa Tolin

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Name: Betty Suarez

Show: "Ugly Betty" (ABC)

She's got character because: Yeah, yeah, she's an obvious choice as the much vaunted star of a fall season smash hit. But you have to give Betty props. Unlike in the similarly framed "The Devil Wears Prada," this fish out of water really shows her tail.

Betty, played by America Ferrera, perennially has that awkward air of a seventh grade yearbook photo but she's fueled with the gumption of a revved up community activist. Vote for Betty? Hells yes.

Though both the dork factor and the fashionista factor are played to the extreme in this series (it's based on a Colombian telenovela), the over-the-topness works. Think about it: so many shows shoot for "ripped from the headlines" authenticity and end up being full of bloated caricatures anyway. "Ugly Betty" announces its intention to drink from the soap opera well from the start.

Betty Suarez gives us someone to love: not because we pity her and not because we always root for the underdog. We love her because she's charming and intrepid and she smiles her brace face grin madly. She dares us NOT to smile back. It's unavoidable.

--Caryn Brooks

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Name: Hiro Nakamura

Show: "Heroes" (NBC)

He's got character because: Hiro is a clock-watching salesman for a corporation in Tokyo who discovers he can actually control the clock, altering time with his mind (if Tom Cruise only had his skills in "Risky Business").

Played by Masi Oka, he represents those of us who spend many hours dreaming away mind-numbing work days. Unlike several of his fellow unsuspecting superheroes who are struggling with the implications of their new talents, Hiro embraces his power with childlike enthusiasm and isn't deterred by his doubting office mates.

Whether it's stopping the clock over his desk, teleporting himself to the women's bathroom in a bar or leaving a crowded rush-hour train for New York City, he does it with shouts of pure glee. This "Star Trek" fan might have gotten more than he bargained for though. With scrunched up eyes and deep concentration, Hiro landed in New York -- five weeks in the future and what he sees is calamitous.

-- Howie Rumberg

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Name: Anh-Tuan "Cao Boi" (pronounced Cowboy) Bui

Show: "Survivor: Cook Islands" (CBS)

He's got character because: The eldest member of now-disbanded Puka tribe, composed entirely of Asian-Americans, is one of the loudest, zaniest folks to compete for the $1 million prize in the reality show's past 12 seasons.

This Vietnam War refugee is covered in tattoos, tells off-color jokes and practices an Eastern medicine technique that leaves gnarly red bruises on tribemembers' foreheads. Yet the hard-to-take 42-year-old nail salon manager from Virginia still hasn't been voted off the island — even after joining the integrated Aitu tribe.

Maybe because that technique of his actually makes headaches go buh bye. While this racially divided edition of "Survivor" may have taken the wind out of "Survivor" fans, Cao Boi has kept viewers entertained with his wacky island antics.

-- Derrik J. Lang

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Name: Jeff

Show: "Smith" (CBS)

He's got character because: Even on a show full of supremely nasty people — not just slightly greedy criminals with hearts of gold but honest-to-goodness sociopaths — Simon Baker's Jeff stood out. We hardly knew him, though, before CBS pulled the plug due to low ratings (and presumably pricey production costs). Goes to show that audiences want a little spark of pure, good humanity with their viciousness, a la "House."

Jeff's introduction in the premiere episode had our jaws dropping: After catching some waves, Jeff gets into a minor turf tiff with a couple surfers. It's nothing big, and he backs off their beach. Then he walks into the woods, pulls out his sniper rifle, and kills them both. Entirely, utterly unnecessary. And thrilling.

Later, he wakes up in bed with a woman he doesn't seem to recognize — a hint of careless drunken sex the night before. This is a terrible, terrible man. You obviously turned the dial, but for all of three episodes, I couldn't stop watching.

-- Ryan Pearson

Team Basic Cable consists of asap's deputy editor Lisa Tolin, entertainment editor Caryn Brooks and reporters Howie Rumberg, Derrik J. Lang and Ryan Pearson.

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