2017 Upfronts Preview Part 3: If I scheduled CBS’s Schedule

2017’s Upfront is right around the corner. Network executives have been trying to narrow down which pilots to pick up to series, which past season’s show to cancel/renew, and how to schedule it all.

I’ve taken a look at the renew/cancel chances of this season’s shows, the pilots in contention to be next season’s new shows, and how I would program ABC’s schedule. On to CBS.

CBS has been its typical steady self. Not deviating far from its multi-cam, laugh-track comedies nor its procedural dramas has done well for the network as other networks flounder with gambits that crashed and burned (notably, the one show that deviated from their playbook, Doubt was the one that crashed and was pulled from the schedule after a a mere two episodes).

So what to do, continue with their crime procedural/laugh-track comedy playbook to diminishing returns each year as streaming/cable channels launch buzzier shows? Adjust their programming for the possibility of luring more of the 18-49 demo at the risk of alienating their core audience and have another Doubt-level failure? It’s certainly a tough needle to thread but here’s one potential schedule.

Sunday
Current Schedule: 60 Minutes/NCIS: Los Angeles/Madam Secretary/Elementary
The first two hours are steady eddy, keep them. The David Boreanaz-starring Navy SEALs drama is a good fit with NCIS, push Madam Secretary to end the night.

Monday
Current Schedule: Kevin Can Wait/Man with a Plan/Superior Doughnuts/2 Broke Girls/Scorpion
Assuming CBS gets the initially batch of Thursday Night Football games again, CBS doesn’t want to lose any more weeks without Big Bang Theory on the air. Start the season with Big Bang Theory leading out to new show 9J, 9K, and 9L, followed by Kevin Can Wait, Man with a Plan, and ending the night with solid 10/9 o’clock anchor Scorpion
Once CBS’s Thursday Night Football games end and TBBT relocates to Thursday, move the 9/8 o’clock block to 8/7, push 9J, 9K, 9L a half hour later followed by 2 Broke Girls.

Tuesday
Current Schedule: NCIS/Bull/NCIS: New Orleans
All three shows have eroded from last season and throughout this season. Still, CBS has wobblier days to reassess first.

Wednesday
Current Schedule: Survivor/Criminal Minds/Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders
CBS has had trouble finding a show to launch in the 10/9 hour, renewing low-rated shows like Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders and Code Black as they low, but as least consistent, CBS figured consistency counts for something in this day and age. Either/both of those shows could very well come back next season as filler.
There’s an interesting prospect for a show with potential to be more than just good enough: S.W.A.T.. Executive Produced by Shawn Ryan with a first episode directed by Justin Lin (Fast & Furious 4-6, Star Trek Beyond; first episode of Scorpion) and starring Shemar Moore, this project seems well-tailored towards CBS’s playbook. Launching it after the show Moore starred in for so long mimics the success CBS had this year with Bull. CBS may even get aggressive and launch in in the 9/8 hour and push a slightly fading Criminal Minds to the 10/9 hour, though that’s a move better made next season to gauge the reception of S.W.A.T. first.

Thursday
Current Schedule: The Big Bang Theory/The Big Bang Theory repeat/Mom/Life in Pieces/The Amazing Race
The search for a Big Bang Theory lead-out continues. With a single-camera Big Bang Theory prequel already ordered to series, CBS may have killed two birds with one stone: finding a suitable stablemate for Big Bang Theory and launching a successful single-camera as younger demographics are avoid laugh-track comedies (along with Life in Pieces). Mom performs admirably and Life in Pieces chugs along so those stay put after The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon kicks off the night.
How to end the night is another question. The Thursday 10/9 hour is littered with casualties after Elementary vacated the spot: Training Day; Pure Genius; Rush Hour. The Amazing Race has been performing okay-not-great in the position in Spring, it’s tempting to put it there again, though there are rumors CBS wants to move to one cycle of TAR per season. If that’s the case, something like Instinct could work, it helps that it stars two actors who are familiar faces to CBS viewers: Alan Cumming (The Good Wife) and Khandi Alexander (CSI: Miami). But barring a break-out hit, the Thursday 10/9 hour has the stench of doom on it for seasons to come.

Friday
Current Schedule: MacGyver/Hawaii Five-0/Blue Bloods
One of CBS’s steadiest nights, keep it be.

2017-18 CBS television schedule
new shows in italics

Sunday: 60 Minutes/NCIS: Los Angeles/Untitled Navy SEALs/Madam Secretary
Monday: The Big Bang Theory/9J, 9K, 9L/Kevin Can Wait/Man with a Plan/Scorpion
(After football: Kevin Can Wait/Man with a Plan/9J, 9K, 9L/2 Broke Girls/Scorpion)
Tuesday: NCIS/Bull/NCIS: New Orleans
Wednesday: Survivor/Criminal Minds/S.W.A.T.
Thursday: Thursday Night Football
(After football: The Big Bang Theory/Young Sheldon/Mom/Life in Pieces/Instinct)
Friday: MacGyver/Hawaii Five-0/Blue Bloods

2016 Upfronts Preview Pt 3c: If I scheduled CBS’s TV Schedule

Upfronts, the annual ritual when TV network execs trek to NYC to pitch their upcoming television schedule in the hopes that advertisers are enticed enough to buy ad time during the shows.

In my preview of the 2016 Upfronts, I’ve taken a look at the pilots (aka first episode) under contention to be picked up to series as well as the prospects for renewal/cancellation of the shows currently on air. Note: these posts could already be out of date with renewal/cancellation & pilot pickup/passed over news since they’ve been published.

In the last part of the Upfronts Preview, I’ll play backseat network executive and lay out how I would program the upcoming television schedule for each of the networks. I’ve went over ABC’s schedule, the CW’s schedule, now it’s time to take a whack at CBS’s.

Say what you will about CBS’s programming, its transitions are smooth: Letterman-to-Colbert (Late Show), Bob Schieffer-to-John Dickerson (Face the Nation), and Nina Tassler to Glen Geller (President CBS Entertainment). Contrast that with the messiness at other networks (Conan, Ann Curry, Michael Strahan). Nina Tassler stepping down is also special in that, so far as is known, she stepped down willingly (after a remarkably long time as CBS Entertainment President) instead of being pushed out as is the norm for the notoriously short career lifespan of network heads of entertainment. Maybe she saw the writing on the wall that the television trends that engulfed so many of CBS’s competitors would eventually catch up to CBS and decided to jump ship before it too caught up to CBS (purely speculation). Either way, she steps down after a strong run at one of the most consistent networks; and it now falls to new CBS Entertainment President Glenn Geller to keep the sturdy CBS ship afloat as it navigates the murky waters of cord-cutting, peak TV, VOD, and depressed 18-49 ratings.

Sunday
Current Schedule: 60 Minutes/Madam Secretary/The Good Wife/Elementary
The Good Wife is going off the air and Madam Secretary & Elementary have both been renewed. CBS seems to be resigned to the fact that Sundays will not be their best night and will be an older-skewing night with low 18-49 ratings, granted they may have a reason to not be too aggressive on this night as CBS-owned Showtime does decent/quite well on Sundays year-round with Homeland, Shameless, Penny Dreadful, Ray Donovan, The Affair, and Masters of Sex.
So it’s probably safe to assume they won’t dramatically rearrange the night and that three of the four hours will stay, with the 9/8c hour being vacated due to The Good Wife ending (R.I.P. you remarkable show). What to fill this hour with that will transition from (and keep) Madam Secretary’s considerable (if older-skewing) audience? Relocate The Amazing Race back to the hour. Honestly the best CBS can expect (and seems content with for the past few seasons) from its Sundays is mid-to-low-1 ratings, which The Amazing Race has been able to pull on the depressed-television-viewing night of Friday.

Monday
Current Schedule: Supergirl/Scorpion/NCIS: Los Angeles
The CBS rumor mill has been working hard with theories of Supergirl’s ratings being a disappointment relative to its cost-per-episode and that Supergirl will only be renewed under the condition that it’s moved to the CW (which CBS co-owns). While this sounds a bit ludicrous, I won’t discount it entirely. For now, I’ll assume it’s renewed and stays on CBS (not that the CW even has room for Supergirl on its packed schedule).
With Thursday Night Football displacing CBS Thursdays for the first 6-or-so weeks of the season, CBS will likely do its usual schedule shuffling to temporarily relocate 2 comedies to Monday. During these first six weeks, have The Big Bang Theory kick off the night and lead into the new Matt LeBlanc comedy to give it a solid launchpad. After TBBT & Matt LeBlanc’s comedy moves to Thursday, fill in with two comedies: returning series Life in Pieces and new comedy My Time/Your Time. While CBS retreated from trying to create a Monday comedy block years ago, a stable 2-hour Thursday comedy block does not give CBS enough real estate to launch all of its comedies. Launch the season with a benched Supergirl and see how the comedies perform on Monday & Thursday. Swap time slots & premiere Supergirl during mid-season as needed.

Tuesday
Current Schedule: NCIS/NCIS: New Orleans/Limitless
This night works, keep it. Although keep an eye on Limitless, and do some off-season tinkering (albeit lightly) as this show started strong but petered off as the season wore on).

Wednesday
Current Schedule: Survivor/Criminal Minds/Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders
In last week’s ratings, Survivor, in its 32nd season outrated The Voice (10th season) in both total viewers and the 18-49 demo. Very impressive. Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders has been doing admirably enough leading out from its original anchor. As tempting as it would be to keep it there, relocate it to Fridays, where it might prove to be a suitable lead-in for fellow crime-in-exotic-locales program Hawaii Five-0. End Wednesdays with Training Day. I was originally thinking MacGyver but the older-skewing audience of Criminal Minds will probably write off any young actor stepping into the shoes of a rebooted MacGyver without giving the show a chance.

Thursday
Current Schedule: The Big Bang Theory/The Odd Couple/Mom/2 Broke Girls/Rush Hour
After Thursday Night Football, TBBT leads off the night as usual. The Odd Couple has been performing admirably enough during the Spring to warrant it continuing leading out from TBBT. Follow that up with the Matt LaBlanc comedy and end the night’s comedy block with Mom. Finish the night with Drew.

Friday
Current Schedule: The Amazing Race/Hawaii Five-0/Blue Bloods
Hawaii Five-0 is getting up there in age so it will probably ride off into the sunset soon. For now, it’s been renewed so CBS will keep this relatively-stable night in tact. Move Amazing Race back to Sundays and see if Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders can hold its own on Fridays, or even improve on TAR’s ratings by a couple ratings ticks with it potentially being more compatible with the night’s crime drama programming.

2016-17 CBS television schedule
new shows in italics

Sunday: 60 Minutes/Madam Secretary/The Amazing Race/Elementary
Monday: The Big Bang Theory/Untitled Matt LeBlanc comedy/Scorpion/NCIS: Los Angeles
(After football: Life in Pieces/My Time-Your Time/Scorpion/NCIS: Los Angeles)
Tuesday: NCIS/NCIS: New Orleans/Limitless
Wednesday: Survivor/Criminal Minds/Training Day
Thursday: Thursday Night Football
(After football: The Big Bang Theory/The Odd Couple/Untitled Matt LeBlanc comedy/Mom/Drew)
Friday: Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders/Hawaii Five-0/Blue Bloods

2015 Upfronts Pt. 3b: If I Scheduled CBS for 2015-16

I’ve looked at the chances of this season’s shows being cancelled/renewed. I’ve looked at some of the pilots. I’ve discussed at length what I might do if I were in charge of scheduling ABC. Now it’s time to take a look at CBS.

I touched a bit on CBS’s shaky future when looking at the pilots. They’ve had a lot of shows this season that are hits. All of them, pretty much are hits. CBS regularly dominates in total viewers, pulling in more viewers than the other networks combined. Thing is, the audience skews old. For better or worse, for whatever reason, the key demographic advertisers care about when it comes to broadcast television is the 18-49 demographic. The higher the 18-49 rating, the more they’re willing to shell out for a commercial slot. CBS may dominate in total viewers regularly (they’ve won something like 12 of the last 13 TV seasons in total viewers), but their shows skew old, and that old skew is not ‘youthening’ up (down?) anytime soon.

There’s the stereotype about CBS programming, its dramas are all spin-offs of some other crime/murderporn show, and its comedies are laugh-track, stale-joke shows. No matter the perception, for a long time, that worked. By simple virtue of having the most viewers, they naturally also had the most 18-49 viewers. That is becoming less and less the case every season. This season has seen many CBS stalwarts come down to Earth. The latest Big Bang Theory season finale finished down 20% from last year. The latest episode of NCIS pulled in 14M viewers compared to The Voice’s 9M. Totally got it beat, right? Not in the all-important 18-49 demo, they tied at 2.0. This is the demo that determines how financially-valuable a show is. And right now its right in line with a show pulling in 60% less total viewers. This is a show that pulled in 3’s and 4’s, that started out the season with a 2.9. Here’s the thing, for a show in its 12th season, that is really quite good, especially in today’s TV landscape. But NCIS is indicative of many of CBS’s shows, they’re in their umpteenth season, on a slow descent in the ratings, still pulling in respectable numbers, but CBS hasn’t really hit it big with any of its new shows in recent years. While ABC has a good mix of old, middle-aged, and young shows, CBS’s best-performing shows are shows it launched 5+ years ago and its newer shows have been middling at best.

These shows have life in them yet, but CBS is a 2nd place network. ABC (3rd) is nipping at its heels. CBS may remain in 2nd for seasons to come due to FOX & NBC’s struggles, but really, they want to be 1st and to do that they need to launch 18-49 hits, without immediately alienating their current audience or they’ll end up the network version of JC Penny.

Sunday
Current Schedule:60 Minutes/Madam Secretary/The Good Wife/Battle Creek
Sunday is a fixer-upper. Madam Secretary is another prime example of the double-edge sword of CBS programming, it pulls in perfectly fine ratings in total viewership, but man oh man does this show skew old. It started off decently with a 2.0 rating (far from spectacular given how hard CBS was pushing this show) ended with a 1.0 for its last two episodes of the season. That. is. miserable. Multiple comedies have been cancelled recently pulling in ratings a little higher than a 1.0 and a) they’re on networks worse off than CBS & b) comedies are less expensive to produce than hour-long dramas. CBS inexplicably renewed it in a wave of freshmen renewals earlier in the season, and boy they must be kicking themselves for it.
All this is to say, they probably can’t stop the bleeding, but they need stave it off. When Fox renewed Glee for 2 seasons and then saw its ratings plummet, they cut the episode order for its last season and shipped it off to Fridays.
Do that. Order 13 episodes and push it elsewhere. Sundays & Thursdays are the most valuable nights and CBS’s Sunday shows have been 3rd/4th-place finishers in the Spring.
60 Minutes usually drops off in Spring, but when it has football in front it can pull in ratings. There’s bigger problems then messing with a show that’s been in its time slot since dinosaurs roamed the Earth. CBS moved The Amazing Race to Fridays and, of course, its ratings dropped, and not to an acceptable depressed-Friday-ratings standard either. TAR was doing perfectly fine on Sundays before getting shipped off. Bring it back and see how it does. It couldn’t do worse than Madam Secretary. It serves as a segue from a news show to scripted shows, appealing to both CBS’s broad/older audience while not putting off the 18-49 demo.
Sundays is admittedly a difficult place to launch a drama, especially if you’re on network television. Cablers from AMC, HBO, Showtime, and even FX this past summer have staked their claim on Sunday nights as the place for prestige & boundary-pushing television. CBS should take its biggest, buzziest show and stick it in the 3rd hour: Supergirl. Sundays in fall particularly skew more male between Football, Walking Dead, and other testosterone-infused shows. While Supergirl will pull in comic book fans (a decidedly male-skewing demographic), it could very well intrigue and get sampling from females watching the first female superhero-starring network show in…forever?
Plant a flag on Sunday nights and follow up Supergirl with another buzzy show: Limitless.

Monday
Current Schedule: 2 Broke Girls/Mike & Molly/Scorpion/NCIS: Los Angeles
CBS’s Thursday Night Football gives it a chance to temporarily relocate its biggest comedy to help bolster its Mondays. Other than that, I wouldn’t tinker with Mondays too much; while it hovers around 2nd-3rd place for the night, Scorpion is probably the most stable of CBS’s new shows this past season. Additionally, moving NCIS: Los Angeles in its 10/9 o’clock hour, while leading to a bit of a steeper-than-predicted ratings depreciation, has managed to shore up an hour CBS has had trouble with. Its ratings have mostly stabilized. The question becomes which new comedy to have follow TBBT on Mondays? CBS hasn’t ordered too many comedies thusfar (that might change when they officially announce their schedule at their upfronts presentation), but out of the two ordered so far, Jane Lynch-starring Angel from Hell sounds better. After TBBT moves back to Thursdays, Angel from Hell will probably mesh at least decently with its presumed lead-in 2 Broke Girls.

Tuesday
Current Schedule: NCIS/NCIS: New Orleans/Person of Interest
Tuesdays is mostly firm night for CBS, but its ratings slide from the beginning to end of the 2014-15 season are worrying. The back-to-back NCIS programming might be burning out audiences who may getting their fill of NCIS after 1 hour of the show. Move NCIS: New Orleans to another night. After spending its entire 12 seasons anchoring Tuesdays, it may be time to shift NCIS (this was also right around the same time in CSI’s life that CBS moved it from its Thursday night perch). Move NCIS an hour later and help it launch a new show (sorry Person of Interest, in my scenario it gets cancelled). Put another buzzy movie-to-TV show adaptation into the 8/7c slot,, Rush Hour will probably get some sampling for its initial episode, and will counterprogram NBC’s The Voice in the same hour. That it’s a cop show will fit in with NCIS. Place Code Black, CBS’s medical drama in the 10/9 o’clock hour

Wednesday
Current Schedule: Survivor/Criminal Minds/CSI: Cyber
The first 2 hours are good enough for now, though CBS has been having some struggles in the last hour on Wednesdays. Reports are that CSI: Cyber has been renewed. Whether or not it has, let’s not place it back in its old time slot where it premiered modestly and by the end of its run was routinely beaten by competition on NBC (Chicago P.D.) and ABC (Nashville). NCIS: New Orleans goes into the 10/9 hour to stem the bleeding and hopefully stabilize the hour.

Thursday
Current Schedule: The Big Bang Theory/The Odd Couple/Mom/TBBT repeat/Elementary
With the relative dearth of comedy orders from CBS coupled with its struggles maintaining 2 hours of comedies on Thursday (it currently has a TBBT repeat regularly scheduled for the night) AND its many drama renewals, it’s conceivable that it will cut back an hour of comedies on Thursday.
But, I’m more bearish than bullish on the likelihood of that possibility so sticking with the 2 hours of comedy that CBS currently has, and assuming The Odd Couple gets renewed (it had a pretty good hold of TBBT’s audience until it tapered off a bit towards the tail end of its run), have TBBT & Mom continue leading off the 7(/8) and 8(/9) hours, with The Odd Couple sandwiched between them and and Mom leading out to new family comedy Life in Pieces. Initially I was adamant that Elementary would move to Friday (and still think that very well could be the case), but given how I’ve scheduled the preceding days and not seeing any chance of Madam Secretary moving to Thursday, I reluctantly keep Elementary in its place. It’s definitely a prime candidate for a move to Friday given its trending downward ratings.

Friday
Current Schedule: The Amazing Race/Hawaii Five-0/Blue Bloods
Hawaii Five-0 could very well get cancelled, but I’m a bit more optimistic about its survival chances. I don’t see Madam Secretary getting a chance to lead in to any programs so stick it into the last hour and shift the current scripted shows on Friday back an hour.

2015-16 CBS television schedule
new shows in italics

Sunday: 60 Minutes/The Amazing Race/Supergirl/Limitless
Monday: The Big Bang Theory/Angel from Hell/Scorpion/NCIS: Los Angeles
(After football: 2 Broke Girls replaces TBBT)
Tuesday: Rush Hour/NCIS/Code Black
Wednesday: Survivor/Criminal Minds/NCIS: New Orleans
Thursday: Thursday Night Football
(After football: The Big Bang Theory/The Odd Couple/Mom/Life in Pieces/Elementary)
Friday: Hawaii Five-0/Blue Bloods/Madam Secretary

Last Year’s Upfront Preview:
Part 3: CBS
Part 3: ABC
Part 2: Pilot Preview
Part 1: Cancel/Renew

Upfronts Preview Pt. 3e: If I Scheduled CBS for 2014-15

This is it! The last post in my very, very lengthy preview of Upfronts, that annual time of year in mid-May when television network executives converge on New York City to pitch their upcoming television season to advertisers. For television fans, it’s basically a deadline for knowing which of your favorite shows are cancelled or renewed (but really the deadline is a week or so before Upfronts, and, in some rare cases, after Upfronts) as well as check a small sneak peak of new shows coming in the fall.

The first part of the preview dealt with what shows have been cancelled/renewed on the 5 broadcast networks as well as prospects for the remaining shows, which is essentially negligible at this point since the fates of all scripted regular season shows on the broadcast networks have since been revealed since that post was published.

The second part looked at some of the pilots being considered for a series order, highlighting the ones I found most interesting or had the best chance for success on the network. Again, most pilots have since been passed over or picked up to series with maybe a handful left to be announced.

For this final part of the Upfronts Preview, I went network-by-network and played backseat executive, programming their 2014-15 television schedules as I see fit (except for Saturdays because who cares). I’ve done all the other major networks: the CW, FOX, NBC, and ABC and now, at long last, it’s time for the last network: CBS.

CBS shouldn’t be too difficult (probably why I saved it for last). It’s been consistently strong in the past couple of seasons, routinely being the #1 network in total viewers (though it’s the number of viewers aged 18-49 that really matter for a show’s renewal prospect), and also competitive in the more-important 18-49 ratings. As such, it renews far more of its schedule than the other networks; this season it renewed 17 of its 21 regular-season scripted shows. Amazingly, they still picked up quite a number of pilots. Which might be a good thing.
This season CBS tried to expand its Thursday night comedies to stretch over 2 hours. Which makes sense, The Big Bang Theory is so dominant, why not have it launch a whole night of comedies? This has had mixed results. The Crazy Ones never really took off (and was cancelled), and Two and Half Men suffered from following it. Once they switched the two and had 2½ Men follow the more compatible The Millers, it started doing decently in the ratings. However Monday was more troubled, efforts at having 2 Broke Girls lead off the 9/8 o’clock hour over-estimated the success of the show, which seems more like a show on a downward slide than a reliable lead-in. How I Met Your Mother had a very strong season, being CBS’s #2 comedy, too bad the show is over. While there’s a pilot for How I Met Your Dad, CBS hasn’t ordered it to series yet. At the risk of getting too much into ‘reading the tea leaves’ territory, that doesn’t inspire too much confidence. The only new comedy to get renewed at CBS was Chuck Lorre’s Mom, which was a very mediocre performer, though very much in line with CBS’s line-up of multi-camera laugh-track comedies. Meanwhile, CBS’s only new dramas, “limited series” Hostages and Intelligence both cratered in the Monday night 9 o’clock hour.

Sunday
The first 2 hours of CBS Sundays are constant enough I don’t see them changing, though I wouldn’t be totally surprised if they were. It’s the last 2 hours that need work. Aging shows The Good Wife and The Mentalist looks to be treading downward (ratings-wise anyways in the case of The Good Wife which has turned me into a regular viewer this season). This opens up opportunities for new shows on a night that has remained largely the same with diminishing returns. The Mentalist will have its final season, getting renewed long after CBS renewed the vast majority of its shows. Bench it for mid-season and take advantage of the big fall promo push (along with some level of a bump from afternoon NFL games boosting CBS’s early evening shows) to launch a new show. It will probably get a shortened final season (13 episodes?), use that it is the show’s last season to promote The Mentalist and have it follow new show Madame Secretary. I went back and forth on what show to put here after figuring out the schedule for all the other nights. Scorpion and Stalker were both viable candidates (and I still anticipate Scorpion making the fall schedule despite my not having it on my schedule), but Madame Secretary fits more with The Good Wife, which will return in Winter after The Mentalist wraps up and take its time slot.

Monday
Mondays and Thursdays will be tricky. For the first several weeks of the season (6 or 8 weeks, I forget which), CBS will air Thursday Night Football, benching all those comedies. CBS will take advantage of this by moving stalwart comedy The Big Bang Theory to help shore up its Monday night line-up. Use The Big Bang Theory to launch the night, follow it with a new comedy, The Odd Couple for Matthew Perry’s name recognition (even if his last 3 shows in which he starred all were cancelled after 1 season), then follow with Mike & Molly and Mom. CBS will be tempted to put a different show on at 8, maybe use 2 Broke Girls and follow it with a new comedy. Don’t keep Mike & Molly waiting in the wings to replace a different show that got cancelled. While its ratings are on par with most other CBS comedies, it stays relatively consistent and doesn’t dip as much as shows like Mom or 2 Broke Girls. People like Melissa McCarthy. They will tune in for her. Don’t use this show just to plug in holes at the last minute when other shows get cancelled. Start the season with it. Follow it with Mom, or a new show. When The Big Bang Theory gets moved back to Thursdays, put in 2 Broke Girls. Its proven itself as a non-reliable starter so bench/save it for 6-8 weeks while you try to get all your Monday shows in order.

And now for one of CBS’s biggest problem areas. Mondays at 10/9c. CBS tried more serialized story-telling at Monday this past season, and while it should be commended for that, the results were awful, awful ratings, by any standards and not just CBS’s inflated standards. And this is where you launch NCIS: New Orleans. Even if it doesn’t hit the lofty heights of the first 2 NCIS’s, it doesn’t have to in this shaky Monday hour. Modest success is good enough, and builds a baseline on which to improve, for this hour. They may want to put in Madame Secretary or Alex Kurtzman-Roberto Orci-executive produced Scorpion, but I’d go with NCIS: New Orleans.

Tuesday
A solid block of programming, CBS won’t tinker with it much. I could conceivably see them trying to launch a show after NCIS: Los Angeles and benching Person of Interest until mid-season, or maybe even after NCIS and shifting NCIS: LA an hour later or until mid-season, which would be smart, but Tuesdays is one of CBS’s most reliable and highest-rated nights. Granted it’s shown some weakness in recent weeks, but still routinely beating its non-Voice competition. FYI, can you believe NCIS will be going into its TWELFTH season?!?!

Wednesday
Another solidly reliable night. Survivor, Criminal Minds, CSI.

Thursday
So after the first 6-8 weeks of NFL football, what then? The Big Bang Theory comes back to launch the night, follow it with The Millers which has shown itself to be a fairly steady lead-out program, then what? Two and Half Men meshed well with The Millers, or do they want to repeat what they did this year, launch a new program after The Millers and have 2½ Men cap off the comedy line-up? Two and a Half Men is in its 12th season (!) and is getting increasingly expensive to make, if this is to be its last season, throw it into the 8:30 time, who cares. But if there’s a chance it might go on for a season(s) after this one, let it follow The Millers, the humor is similar and the audiences are probably too. After moving 2½ Men a half hour earlier, the show proved itself to be consistently strong relative to other CBS comedies. Although the McCarthys is another family comedy that sounds very compatible with The Millers. Shift 2½ Men to 7:30 and have Millers anchor the 8 o’clock hour leading into McCarthys? Launch McCarthys after The Big Bang Theory? Ay, this is where it gets tricky for executives, any number of scenarios that all seem to have viable outcomes. Stability is good, stability is what CBS wants with its comedy line-ups, so with that criteria lets keep Millers following Big Bang Theory, and while I seemed to be advocating 2½ Men following that at first, why give it that lead-in for a show that could very conceivably end at the end of the 2014-15 television season instead of give the time slot to a more (seemingly) compatible show that may be strong for 5-6 seasons down the road? Big Bang, Millers, McCarthys, 2½, Elementary

Friday
Undercover Boss, Hawaii Five-0, Blue Bloods has proven itself to be steadfast performers on Friday nights.

CBS 2014-15 television schedule
new shows in italics

Sunday: 60 Minutes/The Amazing Race/Madame Secretary/The Mentalist
Monday: The Big Bang Theory/The Odd Couple/Mike & Molly/Mom/NCIS: New Orleans
(After football: 2 Broke Girls/” “/” “/” “/” “)
Tuesday: NCIS/NCIS: Los Angeles/Person of Interest
Wednesday: Survivor/Criminal Minds/CSI
Thursday: Thursday Night Football
(After football: The Big Bang Theory/The Millers/The McCarthys/Two and a Half Men/Elementary)
Friday: Undercover Boss/Hawaii Five-0/Blue Bloods

CBS really has been a big question mark, and while I kept its current schedule largely in tact, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if CBS threw us all (well, me at least) a curveball and had a radically different schedule, benching some of its biggest shows for mid-season, knowing it will draw viewers when it returns and attempt to launch new shows in their place. They have a lot of new shows for a network that renewed 80+% of its shows. They could hold them back for mid-season, but many of them seem like shows good enough to get big promotional pushes in the fall.

Well, that’s it for this year’s Upfronts preview! Several posts with 2000+ words, I’ll be sure to plan on spacing these out better next year, and will probably scramble madly at the last minute anyways. C’est la vie.