CBS Fall 2009 - Rumors and Possible Schedule Updates

Before I post, I want to let you guys know this is complete legit as far as I know. I have an inside source who knows someone very high up over at CBS, who has been emailing me back and forth giving me updates on what CBS is planning to do with their schedule for next season. You can take this as rumors, or you can take this as scheduling in the making, but this is for real. This is no joke - I would never lie to my readers.

So, according to my inside source, there are a lot of things CBS is looking at right now, and is debating over for next season. First of all, they're looking to shake things up quite a bit it seems for next season. From what I'm being told, CBS wants to be very aggressive this coming season, and it's partly due to the ever changing TV landscape. Look at how TV has changed just in the last 10 years.. As of now, they can afford to be much more aggressive than any other TV network. I'm also hearing that CBS wants to start getting their demos up - they love that their shows are some of the most watched on television, but the fact is, their demos are low, and advertisers aren't buying it anymore. You can look for their new series to target this, as well as some changes in current series to make them attract a younger audience.

More shocking news: CBS is not planning on cancelling ANY of their current series. As you guys know, shows like Cold Case, Without a Trace, The Unit, Flashpoint, Gary Unmarried, Old Christine, Rules of Engagement, and Eleventh Hour are all on the bubble for next season, and according to my source, all will be back. The only show CBS will be cancelling is Worst Week, which according to my source, has already been cancelled, but has not yet been announced to the public. This means, though, that many new series will be launching in midseason, and these returning series may have shortened seasons. CBS is also looking to completely eliminate airing repeats of 75% of their series. For some of these returning series, it seems like The Unit will be moving to Fridays in place of Flashpoint, with Flashpoint returning in midseason. CBS is planning on swapping CSI: NY and Without a Trace's slots.

CBS is definitely grooming The Mentalist to take over for CSI. It was specifically stated that CBS believes CSI only has 2 or 3 more years left in it - CBS wants to put The Mentalist Thursdays at 10pm where it'll stay until CSI leaves, where then it'll move into the 9pm slot. CBS wants to do the same for Big Bang Theory - leave it at 8pm until it'll move to 9pm once Men leaves. Also in a shocking turn of events: CBS is very interested in resurrecting Saturday nights. We may even see a comedy block turn up on Saturday nights, with possibly Old Christine and Gary Unmarried moving there? CBS is also tossing around the idea of opening a 2-hour comedy block on Wednesdays to go against ABC's 2-hour Wednesday comedy block, which seems to be gaining steam.

There are 2 new series CBS is particularly high on - new comedy "Things a Man Should Never do Past 30" and new NCIS spinoff, so expect those to get fall slots. The shocking thing for "Past 30" is that it may be getting the Monday 8:30 slot, moving How I Met Your Mother to 9:30. Expect the NCIS spinoff to go to Sundays, possibly being paired up with either Cold Case, Eleventh Hour, or a comedy hour.

Now, read this, which comes directly from my source:

Notes on CBS 2009-2010 Potential Schedules:

-The Next King of TV: The Mentalist is being groomed to be CSI's successor. Everyone at CBS LOVES this series (its the most talked about series among its employees), and they are extremely confident that The Mentalist can reach 35 million viewers per airing (combined ratings of original and repeat airings). According to CBS, this series is the next king of TV.

-The Resurrection of Comedies: Moonves and his team are fully aware of the pathetic state surrounding TV comedies, and they are hoping that CBS will be known as "The Place For Comedy" (that's a proposed slogan by the way; simple and effective, huh?) among Americans. In many of these potential schedules, they are as many of 10 comedies. Do you remember in the 1990s when NBC and ABC had upwards of a dozen comedies each in any given season? CBS is also aware of the potential their comedies hold, and with steady repeats on Saturday, they will be able to nurture the next Cheers or Seinfeld instead of operating under the "Must Be A Hit Out of The Gate Or It's Canceled" belief system.

-Cancelation Threats: CBS realizes that several of their series under the threat of cancelation (Cold Case, Without A Trace, The Unit, Eleventh Hour, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Gary Unmarried, Flashpoint) do draw a sizeable audience, and that canceling them at this stage would be too much of a risk for them to undertake. (Editor's note: Without a doubt, CBS has the most promising pilots this season)

-The Resurrection of Saturdays: So much has been said and written about this particular night for such a very long time - it even became a running joke among TV insiders. After all, this is the same night that hosted Empty Nest, The Golden Girls, Amen and Touched By An Angel. CBS is now realizing that you are only as strong as your weakest link. And it is painfully obvious that Saturday is extremely weak - especially among viewers 12-49. I included the 12-17 portion because, after all, they are the next generation of TV viewers. The most recent Saturday ratings (the one before Easter 2009) had CBS averaging about a 1.0 rating among A18-49 from 8-10pm! How many times has CBS lost the A18-49 weekly crown because of ONE night, Saturday?

-Non-Primetime Scheduling: I was shocked to see scheduling choices for non-primetime hours like Saturday 7pm (see schedule #1-3) and late night (see schedule #4). I inquired more about the proposed Dramatime: Dramatime is a spin-off of the Crimetime Saturday programming block, but with less of an emphasis on crime repeats and more focus on prospective series like The Good Wife, House Rules, and Back. It should be noted that this season saw a handful of The Unit airings ending in the 11pm hour (its most recent airing, Easter Sunday 2009, ended at 11:53 pm ET). That alone may mean something.

-Building Strength: As the schedules indicate, CBS wants to strengthen its future on a nightly basis by airing interesting combinations such as Sunday in sked #6 and #7 (1 newsmagazine, 2 comedies - 1 returning/1 new, 1 new drama, 1 returning drama). Heck, the entire schedule #8 is a prime example of strength.

-Year Round Programming: A few schedules have scripted series airing finales in June and July. (schedules #7-9)

-Trends: CBS wants to be known as the savior of modern day TV (Saturday, comedies, late night same day airings, year round programming). The are trying to get more people to continue to watch live TV.


Please guys, take this with a grain of salt. My inside source (who goes by the name of "GHAW") seems to be very reliable, who has a connection with someone who works at CBS. This could definitely be some serious inside news, and I'm glad to be the first to break it. As of the moment, nothing is set in stone: CBS is just trying to see what will work before announcing anything definite, and is by no means ready to get a set schedule out.

I'm a huge fan of CBS, and they're looking to really shake things up for next season. They're my favorite network, just because they seem to have their act together, with a very strong fanbase in all their shows. And hopefully, fans of these bubble shows will rest a little easier, as CBS is really set on making their current series stick around for awhile. Hopefully this will turn out to be more than just a rumor, and I'm happy to post it first on the web!

Please guys, post your thoughts: I'm dying to find out what other people think of all this. I'll be receiving updates within the next couple weeks on what ideas are becoming more certain, and which ones were nothing more than rough sketches. Post away!