CBS FALL 2012: Schedule and Pilot Trailers

While other networks are struggling so much they have to cancel as much as they pick-up, CBS has the opposite problem.  When nearly every show in your arsenal is doing extremely well, it doesn't leave much room for new shows.  Admittedly, it's a problem ABC and NBC would kill for, but it actually does have its own downsides.  It reinforces CBS' reputation for being kind of old and stodgy and doesn't allow for much wiggle room.  As such, when CBS makes cuts, they end up cutting shows that have higher ratings than NBC's best performers.  On the up side, this level of success allows CBS to cut shows that are terrible, even if their ratings are good (a la Rob and Unforgettable).  It also gives shelter to excellent shows with lower ratings like The Good Wife.  CBS may get a bad rap for skewing older in the demographic, but on the reality show of networks, they're just haters who are jealous of CBS' success.  In this case, it's actually kinda true. 
At any rate, CBS is in extremely good shape at the moment, but they have a lot of aging shows that will need to be replaced eventually (sooner than later, if they know what's good for them).
Here's the schedule for fall:

MONDAY
8/7c How I Met Your Mother
8:30 pm PARTNERS
9 pm 2 Broke Girls
9:30 pm Mike & Molly
10 pm Hawaii Five-0

TUESDAY
8 pm NCIS
9 pm NCIS: LA
10 pm VEGAS

WEDNESDAY
8 pm Survivor
9 pm Criminal Minds
10 pm CSI

THURSDAY
8 pm The Big Bang Theory
8:30 pm Two and a Half Men
9 pm Person of Interest
10 pm ELEMENTARY

FRIDAY
8 pm CSI: NY
9 pm MADE IN JERSEY
10 pm Blue Bloods

SUNDAY
8 pm The Amazing Race
9 pm The Good Wife
10 pm The Mentalist

DEAD AS A DEAD DEAD:  CSI: Miami, A Gifted Man, How to Be a Gentleman, NYC 22, Rob, and Unforgettable.
All the dead weight they cut needed to be but and deserved to be cut.  They shant be missed.  With only a few new slots in the schedule though, CBS only has room for a handful of new shows for fall and I have yet to see much of anything for their midseason.  Here are the newbs:

PARTNERS

My Take:  As mentioned, it’s harder to evaluate shows that have a feature video rather than a traditional trailer, so bear with me.  Comedies are tough to parse in bite-sized pieces, but I think this show has some definite potential.  After the characters have actually settled into their roles and the story finds its feet, Partners could be a lot of fun.  The cast is exceptional (LOVE Michael Urie and David Krumholtz has the Whedonverse backing him) and the writing talent is responsible for Will and Grace, a show I quite enjoyed back in the day.  The set-up takes your standard “attractive people dating other attractive people” comedy and puts a bit of a tweak on it.  Not exactly reinventing the wheel, but hopefully the actors and writing will bring something fresh to it.  At the very least, everyone knows the trepidation of friends and lovers interacting, so in terms of ratings and reliability, it has a lot going for it.  The laugh track is going to be a real turn off if the comedy is anything less than gold, so they’ll have to really work for it, as HIMYM does.  Partners looks to be an ideal pairing for HIMYM, so even though ABC’s scheduling department appears to have dropped acid before throwing darts at the calendar, CBS actually seems to know what they’re doing.  All in all, this looks like a charming, if fairly conventional sitcom that should be good for a low commitment, easy show.  PS—500 points for naming the dog Elphaba.

Potential-O-Meter:  6.8


VEGAS

My Take:  Dear Vegas.  Justified, you ain’t.  I tried appreciating the nuances of the show and its concept, but by and large, seeing a rule-breaking cowboy in a hat just makes me pine for Raylan.  More so.  If I had to assess this show, I’d say I’m already kinda bored.  The mob, in general, doesn’t excite me.  As far as bad guys are concerned, they’re some of the least interesting (with more modern mobsters even less captivating that older ones).  I’ll make exceptions for shows like Boardwalk Empire, but even then, I’m not as intrigued as I am by other concepts.  The cast and production look solid, however, so if they can create a story that can bypass my biases, this could be a quality show.  Indeed, from what I’ve seen, this definitely looks like it could be a good show, just maybe not my show.  Michael Chiklis is awful, but I enjoy Dennis Quaid well enough (although the bad fake accent decreases my appreciation of him by at least 24%).  Overall, this behind-the-scenes vignette felt a little flat to me.  Maybe it’s my sensibilities, maybe it’s the show itself, but I’m far from taken with this show, its concept, and its cast.  I’ll give it a shot, of course, but I’m not hopeful.  I think it might be a hard sell for CBS, but who knows.  I don’t watch NCIS, so it’s hard to match up demographics, but maybe all those people who love NCIS will love Vegas.  Doubtful, but CBS has a good enough track record that I wouldn’t count it out.

Potential-O-Meter:  4.1


ELEMENTARY

My Take  Oy.  Dear America, please stop.  If I weren’t such a huge fan and devotee to the brilliant British version of a modern Holmes and Watson, I’m not sure how I’d react to this show, but seeing as I am, I’m annoyed.  Again.  American adaptations are almost universally inferior and unnecessary, so my knee jerk reaction is to simply write this off wholesale and go watch Sherlock instead.  In fact, that would probably be the best recommendation I could make.  Rumor has it there was a fair bit of scrutiny of this show for copying Sherlock hook, line, and inferior sinker, but the writers here very cleverly made Watson female.  On the surface, I have no problem with gender switches when adapting material.  It has worked a number of times in the past to great success.  But seriously, Joan Watson?  Man alive, you couldn’t have just given her an entirely different first name?  Cheesy.  Extremely cheesy.  Anyhow, strictly on its merits, it looks like CBS has taken a classic and turned it into a very typical, very uninspired crime procedural that probably has nothing to do with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle whatsoever.  That said, one of the executive producers has been involved with some excellent shows for HBO and Showtime, so hopefully he’ll bring a little something extra to the picture.  He’s more accustomed to working with pay cable though, so I’m guessing he’ll find the constraints of network TV to be stifling, not inspirational.  Were this on HBO, I’d have a much better feeling about it.  As it, not only does it have to try to live up to the superb British series, but it has to do so in a way that middle America will tune in on a network that won’t allow for any creative expression.  Yeah, good luck with that.  I don’t have high hopes.  Even if the show turns out to be pretty good, it will never surpass its predecessor.  Indeed, it shouldn’t be trying.  I like Johnny Lee Miller and Lucy Lui a hell of a lot, but I think it’s going to be nearly impossible for the show to hold its own, even with a great cast.  We’ll see.  But I’m going to cite precedent on this one and assumethe worst.

Potential-O-Meter:  5.3

MADE IN JERSEY

My Take:  Yeah, no.  Good god, seriously, there have got to be more ideas out there for shows.  Here we have yet another lawyer show, about an young upstart who’s seen Legally Blonde a few too many times, making her way in the big city, blah, blah, blah, I’m bored.  Not only am I bored, I’m rolling my eyes.  A genre show can be a great show, but only if it brings something new to the table.  The Good Wife is a lawyer show on the surface, but it’s so, so much more than that.  With Made In Jersey, I see no such depth.  God, it’s like the network execs thought to themselves, “How could we make a show like The Good Wife, but that appeals to the masses more…  I know!  Throw in Jersey Shore!”  No, Phil (I assume his name was Phil).  That is a terrible idea.  Man alive, if I have to watch one more show where the experienced team members are blown away by the brilliant newcomer cracking the case, I might cry.  The fact that CBS has sentenced this show to Friday, after the fading CSI: NY implies that I’m not the only one with fairly little confidence in this show.  I’m fine with “the same old thing, only better,” but I have zero patience for “the same old thing, only worse.”  There was pretty much nothing in that vignette to recommend the show, so I think I’ll be sticking to my other networks for Friday night offerings.  CBS just doesn’t seem to want to try very hard on a difficult night (in their defense, they don’t really need to, but still).

Potential-O-Meter:  3

There you have it.  They only had a small handful of slots open to them and they decided to fill them with all that.  CBS, it's hard to argue with your business model given your sucess and your willingness to keep The Good Wife for me to enjoy, but this is a pretty disappointing slate for this fall.  Here's hoping that these shows are better than they look.