CBS: Some Things Old, Something New

It seems smart to put The Amazing Race on the back burner for mid-season. With the gimmicky Family and All-Stars 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' 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 since ABC yanked Men in Trees from its lineup. It'll be good to have Trace once again behind CSI.)
And a big whew for CBS' mid-season renewal of The New Adventures of Old Christine. I 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. - Matt Roush
For more of Matt's thoughts on CBS' fall lineup, click here.