Welcome to Upfronts week, when the broadcast networks (or what’s left of them) announce their Fall schedules and attempt to generate billions of dollars worth of excitement from advertisers. It’s harder than ever to authoritatively analyze the thought process that goes into a broadcaster’s cancellation, renewal and pick-up decisions, because network ad revenues directly tied to 18-49 ratings are now just a piece of the puzzle. Other projected and actual revenue streams, especially international and SVOD deals (all of which require some level of ownership by the network’s affiliated studio), are now at least as important, as is delayed viewing on multiple platforms–when that viewing includes commercials. Much of that information is kept away from the public, requiring guesswork on the part of observers.
CBS is a very successful network that’s had the same problem for years: a lack of new hits. The Big Bang Theory, Survivor, Blue Bloods and NCIS anchor the weekday line-ups, and they’re all in their second decades, with the latter starting to show significant signs of age, and with very little to back them up. This past season, Young Sheldon was a quasi-exception, but it’s a spin-off that’s only aired with its parent show, so its strength as a standalone series is unclear. In addition, although not as fundamental as FOX’s upcoming change in ownership (CBS will retain some version of an in-house studio), the network has a great deal of corporate tumult going on between itself, Viacom and their shared parent company, and there’s a possibility CBS emperor Les Moonves won’t survive the carnage. In the face of all this, the network has made some significant changes in its fall schedule, but with new shows that look like more of the same, mining an audience that gets older every year.
A look at the line-up follows the chart:
MONDAY:
8PM: THE NEIGHBORHOOD
8:30PM: HAPPY TOGETHER
9PM: MAGNUM PI
10PM: Bull
The network ripped up its underperforming Monday line-up and started over, with shows that feel very CBS. THE NEIGHBORHOOD is a multicamera sitcom with Damon Wayans Jr and Amber Stevens West as an ordinary couple who suddenly find themselves living with a pop star; it may or may not be a sign of danger that writers Austen Earl and Tim McAuliffe between them have the flop comedies 9JKL, The Great Indoors and Satisfaction in their credits. It’s followed by HAPPY TOGETHER, a blue-collar multicam that stars Cedric the Entertainer and Max Greenfield, from creator Jim Reynolds, a Big Bang writer/producer. The MAGNUM PI reboot comes from the Peter Lenkov factory that’s given us Hawaii 5-0 and MacGyver. The 10PM slot moves Bull from its safe post-NCIS berth on Tuesday, and we’ll see whether it can hold up without that sturdy lead-in.
TUESDAY:
8PM: NCIS
9PM: FBI
10PM: NCIS: New Orleans
The 2 NCIS shows again bracket a compatible newcomer, in this case Dick Wolf’s FBI, yet another procedural from that master of the form.
WEDNESDAY:
8PM: Survivor
9PM: SEAL Team
10PM: Criminal Minds
No changes to a line-up that’s been working, although Criminal Minds is getting noticeably creaky and may be near the end of its run.
THURSDAY:
8PM: The Big Bang Theory
8:30PM: Young Sheldon
9PM: Mom
9:30PM: MURPHY BROWN
10PM: SWAT
The network decided that Young Sheldon wasn’t ready to leave the nest, not making the obvious move of having it anchor the new Monday line-up. The only change of the night is the rebooted MURPHY BROWN, which even by the standards of these revived properties feels elderly.
FRIDAY:
8PM: MacGyver
9PM: Hawaii 5-0
10PM: Blue Bloods
In some ways CBS’s defining night, stacked with shows that know their audience and get loyalty in return.
SUNDAY:
7PM: 60 Minutes
8PM: GOD FRIENDED ME
9PM: NCIS: LA
10PM: Madam Secretary
The only change is the addition of GOD FRIENDED ME, a lightly faith-based drama that sounds an awful lot like Kevin (Probably) Saves the World, as ordinary people are guided by a vague spiritual signal to help others. The creators are Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt, who have recently worked on more hard-edged fare like Gotham and CSI: NY.
For midseason, the network has the sitcom FAM, legal drama THE CODE, and its most ambitious offering, the racial shooting drama THE RED LINE from Executive Producers Ava DuVernay and Greg Berlanti, along with the returns of Elementary, Man With a Plan and Instinct.
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