This just in, all you couch potatoes! CBS has pulled the curtain back on its upcoming fall schedule. This time, the network is really mixing it up. They will keep their most successful shows in place, but they've also made room for a bunch of edgy new programming.
CBS' Leslie Moonves stated in a press conference early Wednesday, "For those of you who know CBS as being too conservative, you'll feel different when you see the shows we have lined up and on the schedule."
One of those shows is Viva Laughlin, which is a musical. Oh, but don't call it that. According to Variety, CBS claims that it's more of a drama which just happens to have some musical overtones. I guess they don't want to call it a musical because Cop Rock still stings a bit.
The network has long been promising more exciting material, but few actually believed that those shows would make it past the pilot stage. CBS' Nina Tassler said, "I don't think a lot of people thought we were actually going to, first, produce the pilots and then actually put them on the schedule. But you need to put your best product on the schedule, and as fate would have it, that's how it worked out. We were going to make some noise, stir things up...And we did."
One of the new shows is Tassler's own Swingtown, a show about swingers. It wont premier until midseason, though, because CBS wants to run the entire series of episodes consecutively without repeats.
Other new shows have been squeezed into spots where they wouldn't be so susceptive to failure. The new Jimmy Smits drama Cane will air on Tuesdays at 10:00 pm. And Viva Laughlin will be making its debut in the Sundays at 8:00 pm slot. Moonlight, a show about Vampires, is being shuttled behind the already popular Ghost Whisperer on Friday nights.
CBS only has one new comedy this season. Called The Big Bang Theory, it will play between How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men. A new reality show entitled Kid Nation will fill the departed Jericho's shoes Wednesdays at 8:00 pm.
Look for all of these new shows in September.