Alright folks, the last of the networks has revealed their lineup for 2010-2011, and it happens to be CBS.
Monday
CBS starts their primetime schedule with their best comedy, How I Met Your Mother and (in this writer’s opinion), it all goes downhill from there. David Spade will continue to annoy America on Rules of Engagement at 8:30, and they’ll be followed up by the same jokes over and over again on Two and Half Men. At 9:30 is a new show from Chuck Lorre, Mike & Molly, which I kid you not is about two overweight people that fall in love at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting. Good job CBS, make fun of fat people. Hawaii Five-O rounds out the night, and the cast that includes Alex O’Loughlin, Scott Caan, Daniel Dae Kim, and Grace Park seems good enough for me to at least give it a shot. It, of course, has potential to be like other classic show reboots, Dragnet, Knight Rider, and The Bionic Woman, just to name a few.
Tuesday
The night stays the same with NCIS bleeding into NCIS: Los Angeles and The Good Wife rounds out the night.
Wednesday
Survivor moves to 8:00 (still?) where it will be followed by Criminal Minds at 9 and a new show, The Defenders at 10. The Defenders Jim Belushi and Jerry O’Connell as two lawyers, but don’t worry everyone, CBS president Nina Tassler assures us it’s not another stock legal drama, saying, “We like to say it’s more of a bromance than a conventional legal drama.” Breathe easy knowing Jim Belushi isn’t doing drama.
Thursday
In an evil move, CBS moves The Big Bang Theory to 8 on Thursdays where it will assuredly crush the far superior Community in the ratings (sorry TBBT fans, I think your show is based on one joke: nerds, right?!). It will be followed by $#*! My Dad Says, the first TV show based off of a Twitter feed. It will apparently be called “Bleep My Dad Says,” since CBS can’t say “shit” on the air. The positive: William Shatner is the star. CSI and The Mentalist round out the night in their normal slots.
Friday
The Forgotten Night kicks off with Medium (wow, still?) and will be followed by CSI: New York and Blue Bloods, a new show about a family of New York cops, that stars Tom Selleck, Donnie Wahlberg, Len Cariou and Will Estes. Who will you pick: Tom Selleck or Jimmy Smits on NBC?!
Sunday
Pretty similar to what it’s always been, with 60 Minutes, The Amazing Race, Undercover Boss, and the moved CSI: Miami in what’s sure to be a (takes off sunglasses) killer night of television.
Other New Shows
Not many, but a Forrest Whitaker spin-off of Criminal Minds.
Other Notes
I’m sorry for being so tongue and cheek through all of that, but CBS really frustrates me as a TV fan. They have fairly bland programming which is designed to grab ratings from an older demographic and get their shows into syndication. There’s no originality in their programming, and the shows that are original (HIMYM) get stuck behind the same old stuff they always put on. Feel free to disagree with me in the comments, but I just think that part of the reason for the rise in acclaim for cable shows is that those networks dare to do something more original than the stock shows CBS puts on the air. Think I’m wrong? Tell me why in the comments!
Well America, you’ve done it again. For the seventh time in the last eight years, CBS has won the banner of “America’s Most Watched Network,” averaging 11.77 million viewers for the network TV season, which officially ended on Wednesday. Also a victory for CBS was that they had seven shows place in the top ten, including NCIS, The Mentalist, NCIS: Los Angeles, Criminal Minds, The Good Wife, and CSI: Miami. They were followed by Fox (9.98 million) , ABC (8.54 million), NBC (8.21 million), and the CW (2.02 million). Fox won the coveted 18-49 demographic with help from American Idol, Glee, Family Guy*, and House, with CBS behind them, and ABC and NBC tied for third, with the CW trailing far behind in fourth. As far as overall viewership, CBS stayed flat with last year, while Fox and, surprisingly, NBC were up 4%. ABC fell 4%, with the CW slipping 2%. So there you have it. I’m sure that football/The Super Bowl helped CBS a little, but let’s all take a moment to notice that NCIS and NICS: Los Angeles were top ten shows.
awarshauer
Michael
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