CBS continues adrenalin rush in fall lineup
CBS is adding three comedies and a trio of dramas to its fall lineup, led by Big Bang Theory prequel Young Sheldon, which will follow the original on Thursday nights, SEAL Team, a military drama starring David Boreanaz (Bones), and a remake of 1970s series S.W.A.T. starring former Criminal Minds star Shemar Moore.
The top-rated network, always a fan of familiar faces, will also feature Bobby Moynihan (Saturday Night Live) in comedy Me, Myself and I, which focuses on a man’s life at three ages (14, 40 and 65); Mark Feuerstein (Royal Pains) as an actor living in an apartment between his parents and his brother in comedy 9JKL; and Jeremy Piven (Entourage) in Wisdom of the Crowd, a new Sunday drama about a tech genius who “creates a cutting-edge crowd-sourcing app to solve his daughter’s murder.”
Fan favourites Code Black and Elementary will return at midseason with 13-episode runs, along with The Amazing Race, Undercover Boss and Matt LeBlanc sitcom Man With a Plan.
Also due: Instinct, starring Alan Cumming (The Good Wife) as a former CIA agent lured out of retirement to track a serial killer; and By the Book, a comedy about a man who decides to live by the Bible.
CBS, though first, is down 12 per cent this season, averaging 9.7 million viewers, and dropped 20 per cent among young adults, ranking behind NBC and Fox. But the network made few significant changes to a schedule peppered with profitable crime series.
As usual, Thursday Night Football schedule will lead CBS to adjust its Monday and Thursday schedules: Big Bang will again begin the season on Mondays, with Sheldon, starring Iain Armitage (Big Little Lies) as a nine-year-old version of Jim Parsons’ Sheldon Cooper who’s entering high school, premièring Sept. 25 and then returning on Thursdays.
Big Bang was just renewed for two more seasons, its 11th and 12th, that many expect to mark its final run. But CBS CEO Leslie Moonves isn’t so sure: “You want to leave on top, but you don’t want to leave money on the table,” he said, adding he felt former hit Everybody Loves Raymond left the schedule “three years too early.”
Meanwhile, Turner says TBS has closed a new deal with Conan O’Brien that extends through 2022.
TBS and sister Turner network TNT plan to launch a total of six new series from stars such as Snoop Dogg, Daniel Radcliffe and Michael Moore. CNN has four new series in the works.
And TNT is working with filmmaker Ridley Scott to develop a night of original science-fiction programming.