Say what you will about the majority of CBS's programming, the network does very well for itself, people. Sure 80% of their shows are crime procedurals and spin-offs of other crime procedurals, but ratings point for ratings point, it's the most consistently stable network of the big four, and outside a few notable exceptions (mostly attention-grabbing reality competition shows on other networks), has the overall highest ratings in town. Seriously, when the main problem your network faces is that it simply doesn't have room for new shows (what with all the current shows being so successful), you must be doing something right.
I scoff at a big proportion of their programming, but then I have to give them a pass for sticking with The Good Wife. It's the best network drama on television and CBS knows it. It's ratings aren't on par with the real heavy-hitters on the network, but CBS knows that The Good Wife gives it something no other big four network has: critical acclaim. While cable programming has infiltrated and nearly taken over awards shows (at least in the drama department), The Good Wife stands as the lone hold out. I like to think of CBS as a big movie studio that makes obscene amounts of money on crappy blockbusters so that it can afford to take a modest hit on the quality films.
Whatever the reasons may be, America really seems to love its gory crime procedurals, so when it comes to fall programming, CBS has a delightfully small slate for me to take care of. Hell, ABC and NBC have basically overhauled their entire networks with more new shows this fall than CBS has had in the past five years combined. Ouch.
At any rate, here's the probable schedule for this fall (new shows in all caps):
MONDAY
8/7c pm How I Met Your Mother
8:30 pm 2 BROKE GIRLS
9 pm Two and a Half Men
9:30 pm Mike & Molly
10 pm Hawaii Five-0
TUESDAY
8 pm NCIS
9 pm NCIS: LA
10 pm UNFORGETTABLE
WEDNESDAY
8 pm Survivor
9 pm Criminal Minds
10 pm CSI [new time slot]
THURSDAY
8 pm The Big Bang Theory
8:30 pm HOW TO BE A GENTLEMAN
9 pm PERSON OF INTEREST
10 pm The Mentalist
FRIDAY
8 pm A GIFTED MAN
9 pm CSI: NY
10 pm Blue Bloods
SUNDAY
7 pm 60 Minutes
8 pm The Amazing Race
9 pm The Good Wife [new time slot]
10 pm CSI: Miami
The only truly notable aspect of the new schedule for me is that The Good Wife is moving to Sundays. Many have wondered if CBS is trying to kill the show, but as far as I'm concerned, they're simply putting it on the night it always should have been on. I'm not sure how this is going to impact the ratings, but in terms of tone, I've always thought it should be on Sunday and certainly that it didn't fit with NCIS as a pairing. The Amazing Race gets amazing ratings, so from where I'm sitting, moving the show to it's new slot is a ploy to improve its ratings and keep the show alive for years to come. Here's hoping that's how it actually plays out. If any show is being set-up to slough off this mortal coil, it's CSI, which totally deserves it.
Anyway... On with the shows! Of note, there are a lot of things CBS does extremely well, but providing show trailers isn't one of them. They have a tendency to provide weird mash-ups of behind-the-scenes stuff and show clips. Bear with me...
Here are the dramas:
PERSON OF INTEREST
Description: Stars Michael Emerson (Lost), James Caviezel (The Prisoner), Taraji P. Henson (Boston Legal) and Kevin Chapman (Mystic River). From exec-producer J.J. Abrams (Lost/Fringe) and penned by Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight).
First Impressions: Well, shit. You can't ask for a better pedigree than JJ Abrams and anyone even remotely associated with The Dark Knight, so to say that this show should be good is an understatement. I think this is going to be one of the biggest hits of the fall. Not only does it have one hell of a creative team at the helm, but it fits with CBS's brand nicely, but improves on it. I think the only head-scratcher with this one is its scheduling. Thursday is a very big night for television, so that's right on the money, but it's lead-ins are a pair of comedies... the one just before it, a new comedy. That... doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense. But, when push comes to shove, I think this show will have enough buzz and momentum that it won't need a snazzy lead-in. I'm guessing CBS knows that. In terms of the actual show, I'm excited, but cautious. My only real apprehension is the tendency for CBS shows to be straight-up procedurals. I'm hopeful this show strikes the kind of balance that The Good Wife has with 60% serial, 40% procedural, unlike the rest of the network which errs on the side of 85% procedrual, 15% serial, if we're lucky. I've been winding my way through all six seasons of Lost over the past few months, so all I could think when watching this preview was that it looked an awful lot like Sayid would show up at any moment wondering who to kill next. Seriously, how do you trust Micheal Emerson at this point? Especially when he appears to be playing a slightly more mainland-y Ben Linus? Speaking of which, the ex-Losties certainly have done well for themselves in the coming pilot season. Just about every show has an alum (which might simply be indicative of the fact that over 6 seasons, every actor with or without a SAG card was on the show). Anyway, this is a high-budget thriller with a hell of a cast and crew and I can't help but to be excited. This show is in line with CBS, but appears to pack more punch than its usual serial-killer fare. Preventing crime isn't the most original bent in the world, but for CBS, a network whose bread and butter is found in the aftermath of horrific crime, it's pretty novel. I'm guessing it'll err on the more action-y, shoot 'em up, guy-centric end of the spectrum, but if it's done correctly, it could make for one of hell of a show. Sign me up.
UNFORGETTABLE
Description: Stars Poppy Montgomery (Without a Trace), Dylan Walsh, Michael Gaston, Kevin Rankin (Justified, FNL), and Daya Vaidya. Ed Redlich (Without a Trace) writes and executive produces alongside EP Sarah Timberman, EP Carl Beverly and writer/co-EP John Bellucci.
First Impressions: This was originally going to be called "The Rememberer", but that was kind of begging to get made fun of. I'm not saying I won't title the full review of the pilot with anything but "The Rememberererererer", but axing that title was a definite step in the right direction. That said, this looks wearily familiar and fits the CBS brand in a bad way. Where Person of Interest ups the ante, Unforgettable puts a very slight and fairly cheesy spin on the old routine. To be honest, I was so distracted by Poppy Montgomery's atrociously bad American accent that I probably missed a lot of the promo. I'm still trying to decide if maybe her character is supposed to be Australian or has a mother who is or something. Seriously, that's one of the worst I've ever heard. Which is strange, because the Aussies usually do a hell of a job. Not here. For what it is, it seems fine, I suppose. After you've seen 104 billion shows just like this, it's hard to be objective. It has all the cliches you'd expect and will cover the same ground, albeit with mostly different names. Kevin Rankin always does a nice job, but I have a sinking feeling he'll be playing second fiddle here, on a show which already looks pretty mediocre. Sad, really. At any rate, I'm not excited for this by any stretch, but it appears to be a competent production of the exact same show that people seem to love. Odds are it will do well, even if critics are bored to tears.
A GIFTED MAN
Description: Patrick Wilson (Little Children) stars as an ultra-competitive surgeon whose life is changed forever when his ex-wife (Jennifer Ehle, The King's Speech) dies and begins teaching him what life is all about. Julie Benz (No Ordinary Family) co-stars, produced by Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich), Sarah Timberman, Carl Beverly and Jonathan Demme (Rachel Getting Married), who directed the pilot.
First Impressions: Well, first off, any show that starts off the title screen with a definition is already on my bad side (The Mentalist, I'm looking in your direction). Secondly, when it's a word that everyone already knows the definition of, you can officially bite me. Thirdly, if I have to see another show about a heartless surgeon learning to care about the little guy, I might just cry. Fourth (ly?), Julie Benz. Ugh. Fifth, I'm all for high-concept, but this just looks lame. Other than that...! Yeah, so this show isn't really grabbing me. At least not in any good ways. When it doesn't look completely cheesy or cliche, it looks painfully overwrought. The fact that CBS has this slated to anchor the night on Friday suggests that I'm not the only one who's underwhelmed by this one. It strikes me more as a bad Lifetime movie rather than a compelling series. My heart broke just a little bit to see Margo Martindale (aka, the indomitable Mags Bennett) attached to such a show. Oh, Justified. Did you have to kill her off? Yes, you did. But look at the fallout! In short, this looks like a disaster masquerading as a heart-wrenching, compelling drama. CBS struggles hardcore to incorporate shows that don't fit their model, and have had particularly poor results with medical dramas. Three Rivers, anyone? They managed to break into the lawyer genre with The Good Wife, but cops and lawyers are fairly well-connected in the end. Doctors? They really should stop trying. In case I'm being too subtle here, I'm not holding my breath on this one. It could be an amazing shows disguised as a cheesefest, but I'm doubting it.
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