CBS Shifts Schedule, Unveils Male-Dominated New Shows
Jim Parsons and William Shatner
CBS will add only five new series to its fall lineup, taking an if-it-ain’t broke approach that will bring back 18 series, though some of them will be in unproven new time slots. The male-dominated new shows include the previously anticipated Hawaii Five-0 reboot, a new legal drama, The Defenders, starring Jim Belushi and Jerry O’Connell, a family cop drama starring Tom Selleck and Donnie Wahlberg, and $#*! My Dad Says, a William Shatner vehicle inspired by a Twitter feed.
Fall TV Scorecard: Which shows are returning? Which aren’t?
Also joining the lineup is and Chuck Lorre’s romantic comedy Mike & Molly, with Billy Gardell and Melissa McCarthy. Hawaii Five-O already has high expectations not only because of fondness for the original series, but also because the cast include Daniel Dae Kim in his first post-Lost role and Alex O’Loughlin hoping the third time will be the charm after two previous CBS series — Moonlight and Three Rivers — were each canceled after less than one season.
Check out our day-by-day guide to all the networks’ fall schedules
The Big Bang Theory, a major success as part of CBS’ Monday night comedy block, will move to Thursdays at 8 to launch a new hour of comedy. Survivor will leave Thursdays for Wednesday nights at 8. And, in perhaps the network’s riskiest move, CSI: NY will move to Fridays at 9, a timeslot where shows often struggle to thrive. CSI: Miami will move to Sundays at 10.
CBS cancels seven series, including Ghost Whisperer, Numb3rs and Cold Case
The network ordered a Criminal Minds spinoff starring Forest Whitaker for midseason.
Details on the new shows:
Hawaii Five-O: Kim and O’Loughlin’s characters solve crimes in a drama CBS president describes as being “character driven with great humor.”
The Defenders: In another drama billed as funny and character-based, Belushi and O’Connell play a pair of colorful Las Vegas defense attorneys.
Blue Bloods: Selleck and Wahlberg anchor this NYPD drama about a family so into being cops that their blood runs blue. Not literally.
$#*! My Dad Says: This hard-to-type and harder to pronounce comedy was inspired by a Twitter feed about a dad who says the wrong thing, wears not enough clothes and generally embarrasses his son.
Mike and Molly: Gardell and McCarthy play a cop and teacher who find love at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting.
CBS’ fall schedule:
MONDAY
8 p.m. How I Met Your Mother
8:30 p.m. Rules of Engagement
9 p.m. Two and a Half Men
9:30 p.m. Mike and Molly (new)
10 p.m. Hawaii Five-O (new)
TUESDAY
8 p.m. NCIS
9 p.m. NCIS: Los Angeles
10 p.m. The Good WifeWEDNESDAY
8 p.m. Survivor
9 p.m. Criminal Minds
10 p.m. The Defenders (new)
THURSDAY
8 p.m. The Big Bang Theory
8:30 p.m. $#*! My Dad Says (new)
9 p.m. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
10 p.m. The MentalistFRIDAY
8 p.m. Medium
9 p.m. CSI: NY
10 p.m. Blue Bloods (new)
SATURDAY
8 p.m. Crimetime Saturday
9 p.m. Crimetime Saturday
10 p.m. 48 Hours MysterySUNDAY
7 p.m. 60 Minutes
8 p.m. The Amazing Race
9 p.m. Undercover Boss
10 p.m. CSI: Miami
Latest upfront headlines (including ‘Ghost Whisperer’ scoop)
Image Credit: Vivian Zink/ABC* CBS’ daring new fall schedule (Big Bang to Thursday! Survivor to Wednesday! CSI: NY to Friday!) can be found here.
* All signs point to ABC rescuing Ghost Whisperer from CBS’ trash heap. An Alphabet reprieve for Old Christine, however, appears unlikely. And I think we can all agree that that sucks something major.
* The final updates have been made to my Bubble Show Scorecard. Did your favorites make the cut? Most of mine did — and, really, that’s all that matters.
* At Adult Swim’s upfront presentation this evening, the cable net is expected to unveil a trailer for the new season of Rob Corddry’s uproariously twisted onetime Web series Children’s Hospital (bowing July 11). An exclusive first look at said trailer is below.
Breaking: CBS cancels ‘Ghost Whisperer’ and ‘Old Christine’
Image Credit: Sonja Flemming/CBS; Greg Gayne/CBSIn a stunning move, CBS has axed both Ghost Whisperer and The New Adventures of Old Christine.
Also gone: Gary Unmarried, Cold Case, Miami Medical, Accidentally on Purpose, and Numb3rs.
Medium and Rules of Engagement, meanwhile, have been renewed.
Fans may want to hold off on eulogizing Ghost and Christine for a day or two, however. There’s an outside chance that ABC (which co-owns GW and has long coveted Christine) may swoop in and rescue one or both.
“There’s a 50/50 shot that Christine will move to ABC,” says one source. A reprieve for Ghost appears less likely. Final decisions are expected later this week.
AAdrianna and Navid Lite bond over being narcissistic twits for a bit, and NL inadvertently takes credit for Actual Navid’s cutesy charm bracelet. Actual Navid sees the bracelet on AAdrianna, flips out, barges into a taping of Blaze Live, and screams his true feelings in front of literally everyone at West Bev (via TV). On the upside, AAdrianna admits she likes him too, so it could have gone much, much worse. On the downside, NL is not a man who will take “no” for an answer. He reiterates his offer to take AAdrianna on tour over the summer — all the better for him to steal her away from Navid again.
Spoiler Junkie 