CBS: Some Things Old, Something New
Anthony LaPaglia in Without a Trace by Mitch Haddad/CBS
In years past, CBS's stability (which you've gotta know the other networks covet) has often been criticized as complacency, especially in these last few years of wall-to-wall crime dramas. Zzzzzz. That's about to change, with a fall lineup of new, intriguing high concepts that could open some eyes where the Eye net is concerned and give CBS the one thing it most desperately desires: Buzz. Let's hope some of the new stuff sticks.
There is reason to be skeptical. The few shows from last season that went particularly "off brand" didn't last, most notably the serialized crime caper
Smith (gone in three weeks) and the apocalyptic
Jericho (canned after one season, which ended in a hail of bullets between warring towns, leaving fans on edge and up in arms themselves). The nagging question is if CBS will truly give its offbeat new lineup a chance to distinguish itself or instead will fall back on the tried and true that works so well for a network known for its satisfying, crowd-pleasing mainstream hits. (Just look at Tuesdays at 10 pm/ET this year: Two quick fades in
Smith and
3 LBS - also three weeks and out - after which, for the majority of the season, this hour of prime time real estate was turned over to replays of CBS's endless string of procedurals.)
Before I take a quick look at the night-by-night rundown, a few observations.
Seems smart to put
The Amazing Race on the back burner for midseason. With the gimmicky "family" and "all-star" cycles, this most-honored of all reality-competition shows was beginning to look a bit played out. Less is more. CBS should make this show feel like an event, and the best way to do that is not to schedule it season-round. Leave us wanting more, and maybe more will come.
Moving
Without a Trace back to its old Thursday slot: Good idea. This season, it helped establish CBS's new Sunday strategy of a crime block to counter ABC's popular soaps. Now it can go back where it truly belongs, restoring some luster and stability to the toughest, most competitive night of the week. (And selfishly, I've had nothing to enjoy watching Thursdays at 10 pm/ET since ABC yanked
Men in Trees from the lineup. It'll be good to have
Trace once again behind
CSI.)
And a big whew for CBS's midseason renewal of
The New Adventures of Old Christine. Love that show, and was worried that the mystifying success of the mediocre
Rules of Engagement (which returns in that coveted catbird seat between
Two and a Half Men and
CSI: Miami) would spell its doom.
Some early thoughts on the new CBS lineup, night by night:
Monday: Once again, stability rules, with only one new comedy in the mix:
The Big Bang Theory, yet another twist on geek chic (see NBC's
Chuck). As expected,
The Class didn't graduate to a sophomore season. (The only way this or
Christine would have returned in the fall is if CBS had tried to open a second comedy front during the week, which would have been a long shot at best.) I'm glad the rumors swirling around
How I Met Your Mother's return were unfounded. The way this season ended, with Ted's love life once again wide open, it needed this third season (and probably more). This is still going to be a powerful night for CBS.
Tuesday: More stability, with
NCIS and
The Unit returning to lead in to what has to be seen as a risk:
Cane, a Cuban-American family drama led by
Jimmy Smits. This is one of TV's most endangered genres, and while it adds instant diversity to CBS's lineup, I worry that if it's too earnest, it won't last. As well as CBS does in the first two hours on Tuesdays, it has struggled in the 10 pm/ET time period ever since cutting the old-skewing
Judging Amy loose. Can Smits & Co. do serious damage against
Law & Order: SVUand
Boston Legal? The storytelling is going to have to be pretty potent to break through.
Wednesday: Replacing
Jericho (I'm already wading through the angry mail on that snub) is the sort of reality show that may actually live up to that overused label of "social experiment."
Kid Nation transplants 40 kids into a New Mexico ghost town and asks them to start a society from scratch. Sounds intriguing, but also sounds like something you'd more likely see on cable or PBS. Rounding out the night: the usual procedural grind of
Criminal Minds and
CSI: NY. This looks like CBS's easiest line-up to avoid, especially given how aggressively ABC and NBC are going after the night.
Thursday: Back to normal.
Survivor,
CSI and
Without a Trace. Good times.
Friday: CBS hopes to capitalize on the otherwordly appeal of
Ghost Whisperer by replacing the conventional
Close to Home with the vampire-detective saga
Moonlight. (Hope it's better than Lifetime's dreary
Blood Ties, which wouldn't be hard.) I like the idea, but worry that if it doesn't fly right off the bat (sorry),
Moonlight could go the way of
Threshold a few seasons ago and be gone by year's end.
Numbers will ensure that CBS ends the night on a high note. Again, CBS is using solid tentpoles to try to create a new, outside-the-box franchise we might actually buzz about.
Saturday: The dead zone.
Sunday: The biggest risk of the season so far (with the possible exception of ABC's adorable
Pushing Daisies) is
Viva Laughlin, a drama-with-music based on a British concept (seen on BBC America as
Viva Blackpool!). This heightened melodrama, using pop songs and choreographed flights of fancy to underscore the action, sounds on paper like the next
Cop Rock, but could be something truly special. CBS is going to have to patient with this one - unless, of course, it takes everyone by surprise. Wouldn't that be nice? Otherwise, it's same old same old, with
60 Minutes on one side and the crime duo of
Cold Case and a transplanted
Shark on the other.
Finally, one show that didn't make the fall lineup but is on hold for midseason is a pet project of CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler (who first mentioned this to me last December at a holiday party).
Swingtown is an ensemble drama set in the '70s that looks at the shifting sexual and social mores of the time. Sounds a little bit nostalgic, a little bit FX. Once again, CBS is going out on a limb to do something different. I applaud the daring and hope the execution of these shows live up to their ambition. And if that happens, I hope the audience will respond and reward CBS for not playing it safe for a change. Otherwise, I fear CBS will start shopping around for a new
CSI locale.
