THE MARKET: Will “Dirty Sexy Money” on ABC make it to a tenth episode in its second season? The drama will premiere on Wednesday, October 1 at 10 p.m. ET. Trading will close immediately after a seventh episode is aired. If a tenth episode airs, shares are worth $100. If it doesn’t, they’re worth $0.
THE DATA: “Dirty Sexy Money” is one of a trio of sophomore ABC shows, including “Private Practice” and “Pushing Daisies,” trying to recover from a strike-shortened season. All return on Oct. 1.
OUR TAKE: For a while, both “Dirty Sexy Money” and “Pushing Daisies” were being roundly beaten by another ABC freshman show, “Big Shots” – a male “Sex and the City” clone that ended up getting the axe. Why did “DSM” survive? Presumably its not-bad writing and quality cast, including Donald Sutherland and Peter Krause, held out promise for the future. (Indeed, even though only 10 million people tuned for the premiere, a healthy 7 million of those people stuck around week-in and week-out.) This year “DSM” will bring in Lucy Liu and a jazzed-up storyline – in which the ultra-rich Darlings seek to cover up a murder – in an attempt to grow from a quality soap into water-cooler drama. If it takes too long, expect no mercy from the alphabet network.LEARN MORE: See the “Dirty Sexy Money” home page.