TV Upfronts: Day Three - CBS

For a true TV junkie, the upfronts serve as a chance to gorge oneself on the possibilities that the coming TV season will bring. Where are your favorite shows moving to? Which ones have been cruelly axed by their network? What new shows should you most be looking forward to? It’s a great time to love TV.

One thing that’s important to remember: This is basically a multi-billion dollar game of chicken, so these schedules are most definitely subject to change but for now, here’s what CBS has to offer starting in September:

Mondays
8 – How I Met Your Mother
8:30 – The Big Bang Theory
9:00 – Two And A Half Men
9:30 – Rules Of Engagement
10 – CSI: Miami

Tuesdays
8 – NCIS
9 – The Unit
10 – Cane

Wednesdays
8 – Kid Nation
9 – Criminal Minds
10 – CSI: Miami

Thursdays
8 – Survivor
9 – CSI
10 – Without A Trace

Fridays
8 – Ghost Whisperer
9 – Moonlight
10 – Numbers

Saturdays
8 – Crimetime Saturday
9 – Crimetime Saturday
10 – 48 Hours: Mystery

Sundays
7 – 60 Minutes
8 – Viva Laughlin
9 – Cold Case
10 – Shark

The Big News:
*After long bearing the identity of a home for dry procedurals and older-skewing dramas, CBS is making a bold attempt to grab a younger audience with its slate of risky new dramas for fall 2007. Instead of launching a 17th different version of CSI or another Jerry Bruckheimer-helmed crime procedural, CBS will offer a Latino version of The Sopranos (Cane), a vampire PI (Moonlight), an adaptation of quirky British hit Viva Blackpool (Viva Laughlin), and a drama for midseason about partner swapping in the 1970’s (Swingtown). One thing is definitely for sure – this isn’t your parents’ CBS.

*In what can partially be described as a desperation move, Without A Trace has been returned to Thursdays following CSI. After the ancient ER was able to make inroads against Shark this past season, CBS decided to move Without A Trace back to its old stomping grounds, where it routinely trounced ER over the past few years. This will also curb Without A Trace having to air past the 10PM hour as happened so often this past season when afternoon sports overruns would wreak havoc on CBS’s Sunday night schedule. Still, it’s a bit odd that CBS chose to use its most valuable slot on an established hit like Without A Trace instead of…

*… A show like Cane. The brass at CBS must not have liked the pilot as much as they had hoped they would since almost every rumor had Cane following CSI on Thursday nights. Instead, they decided to relegate it to the spot that killed the equally ambitious Ray Liotta vehicle, Smith, after only three episodes this past fall. It will also have to contend with established hits Law & Order: SVU and Boston Legal. Cane could have really used the boost from CSI’s audience, which is a wee bit bigger than that of its announced lead-in, The Unit. Hope Jimmy Smits has another project lined up in case this one tanks, which based on early impressions of Cane would really be a shame.

*It’s a curious move for CBS to lead off Sunday nights with perhaps its most unorthodox new series, Viva Laughlin. OK – technically 60 Minutes leads off Sunday nights, but that’s a grandparents’ show and thus doesn’t count. A risky adaptation of the BBC’s Viva Blackpool, Viva Laughlin has been described as part musical, part mystery, and entirely offbeat. The series will be executive produced by film star Hugh Jackman, who will also make occasional guest appearances. Audiences aren’t usually looking for quirky as they wind down from the weekend, plus trying to launch a new series on a night when 50% of the time in the fall football overruns are going to make its starting time very fluid… this might not have been the best time or place to kick off a series of this nature.

*Jericho became yet another in the long line of serialized shows that were all the rage last year at the upfronts to not get a chance at a second season. You remember Vanished, Kidnapped, and The Nine, don’t you? The ratings sure as hell say that you don’t. It’s tragic that the American public has the attention span of an 18-month old and can’t support a long term investment in the genre, but at the same time networks have to shoulder their portion of the blame for being too quick to the trigger when these shows underperform from the get-go. It’s a chicken and egg type of deal that unfortunately doesn’t show any signs of changing anytime soon.

*One smart move that CBS made was bringing back perhaps TV’s most underrated comedy, How I Met Your Mother. The show was reportedly on the bubble for a third season but it will be back to lead off Monday nights. Its cast has gelled into one of TV’s funniest ensembles and it is one of the rare comedies that allows for casual, drop-in viewers while also rewarding its loyal ones with long-running gags. Plus, Neil Patrick Harris (that’s right – Doogie Howser) is utterly brilliant as an alternately slimy and hilarious skirt-chaser. Maybe the third season will bring with it the audience that How I Met Your Mother so richly deserves.

Back tomorrow with FOX. The CW also announces tomorrow but, as I expect that they’re about to cancel Veronica Mars, they’re all but dead to me and will have to wait until Friday or the weekend. Stupid asses.