CBS has been the most-watched network in the country for years, but now it is seeing its ratings in the coveted 18-to-49 year-old demographic wither as shows such as The Walking Dead and Empire eat away at their lead. But since CBS already has a winning formula, it’s not really messing with it. There are just a few tweaks in their new fall schedule, which they plan to unveil Thursday at their upfront presentation, where they preview their new shows to advertisers like the spokesmodels on The Price Is Right show off a new car.
One of the biggest changes will be the end of CSI, the procedural that has been a tent pole for the network for 15 years and was, at one point, TV’s most-watched drama. It will go out with a bang this 27 September with a movie special. Original stars William Petersen and Marg Helgenberger will return for the movie and Ted Danson, who currently heads up CSI, will move over to CSI: Cyber with Patricia Arquette.
The funny thing about CBS’s schedule is that it is always screwed up by football, and not only when you go to tune into The Good Wife and realize it will be 20 minutes late because the game ran over. CBS has the NFL’s Thursday night game all fall, so that means some new series won’t start until November.
While football is still on, The Big Bang Theory – currently TV’s biggest comedy – will air on Mondays at 8pm followed by the new show Life in Pieces, an inter-generational comedy starring James Brolin, Diane Wiest and Colin Hanks. Giving this show such a plum spot and lead-in shows the network wants to make it a big hit. Once football wraps up, they will both move to their regular time slots on Thursdays at 8pm and will be followed by Mom – currently TV’s most underrated sitcom – and brand-new Angel From Hell, where Jane Lynch plays a young woman’s dastardly guardian angel.
When the comedies vacate Monday nights in November, CBS will roll out Supergirl, their highly anticipated entry into the over-stuffed (and often under-watched) superhero genre. So far details are scant, but you can imagine what this will be like.
The only other shows CBS is adding are Limitless and Code Black. Airing on Tuesdays at 10pm following a two-hour block of NCIS shows, Limitless is executive produced by Bradley Cooper and based on the movie he starred in about a man who achieves unbelievable brain capacity after taking an experimental drug. Thursday nights at 10pm brings Code Black, a traditional-seeming ER drama headlined by Marcia Gay Harden.
Confident in its programming choices, CBS only has two new dramas slated for mid-season: Rush Hour, based on the film series (but without Jackie Chan or Chris Tucker), and Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, because CBS never met a procedural it couldn’t clone 17 different ways. Hey, if the strategy works, why monkey around with it?
