CBS goes back in time with new series
NEW YORK — Glance at next season’s schedule for CBS and you could be forgiven for wondering what decade it is.
The network is adding remakes of 1980s series Murphy Brown and Magnum, P.I. to a lineup that already includes blasts-from-thepast Hawaii Five-0 and MacGyver.
CBS executives said Wednesday that the Murphy Brown reboot, which again stars Candice Bergen, moves TV anchor Murphy out of prime-time.
She hosts a morning cable show with the snappy title of Murphy in the Morning, and is facing off against her son on a competing network.
A change that Magnum fans should watch for, beside a missing comma in the revamp’s title — the private detective has a goatee instead of the signature moustache of original star Tom Selleck. Jay Hernandez plays the new Thomas Magnum.
While ABC and NBC have found comedy reboot success with, respectively, Roseanne and Will & Grace, CBS Entertainment president Kelly Kahl acknowledged it’s not a slam-dunk. That’s why Murphy Brown is getting a supportive Thursday berth, airing after established comedy hits including The Big Bang Theory and Mom.
Bergen’s show is “going to get a lot of attention, we expect viewers to come. But we want to make sure it doesn’t kind of fade out after the buzz of the première,” Kahl said as the network unveiled its 2018-19 schedule for advertisers.
New Magnum star Hernandez, who is of Latino descent, is among actors of colour joining the CBS lineup, long criticized for a lack of inclusion.
A number of freshman shows feature black leads, including God Friended Me, a comedy-drama with Brandon Micheal Hall as an atheist who does God’s work after they become Facebook friends.
In the sitcom The Neighbourhood, Cedric the Entertainer stars as an opinionated man who has to adjust to new white neighbours, and Damon Wayans Jr. and Amber Stevens West play a young married couple in another comedy, Happy Together.
Midseason will bring the comedy Fam, starring Tone Bell, and The Red Line from producers Ava DuVernay (Selma, Queen Sugar) and Greg Berlanti, about the mistaken shooting of a black doctor by a white police officer. Along with Noah Wyle, the series stars include Howard Charles and Emayatzy Corinealdi.
The Big Bang Theory enters its 12th year this fall, and is still a draw. This season’s finale, in which the Amy and Sheldon characters wed, was the most-watched show in the U.S. last week. Kahl and programming chief Thom Sherman said they see no end in sight, as long as the producers feel they still have stories to tell.
It’s in “peak form” and CBS hopes to get a few more years out of it, the executives said. Expect Roseanne to cool it on politics and concentrate on family stories when it returns for the second season of its revival next year.
That was the word Tuesday from ABC Entertainment chief Channing Dungey as she introduced the network’s plans for next year. The show’s return exceeded all expectations this spring, with the support of Roseanne Barr’s character for U.S. President Donald Trump attracting attention.
Dungey noted that, as the first season went on, the focus shifted from politics to family.
“I think they’re going to continue on the path that they were on toward the latter part of this season, which is away from politics and more focused on family,” she said.
There may be good business and creative reasons for that. Asked if she was concerned that Barr’s opinions might affect how viewers perceive the show’s content, Dungey replied: “I do think there is a little bit of that, yes.”