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 demo 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.
Anti-Crime Wave: CBS has been criticized for programming far more crime based series than any other TV network. They are trying to diversify its content by airing more non-crime based series. Schedules #7 & #8 (seven non-crime), #6 & #9 (six non-crime).
Building Strength: As the schedules indicate, CBS wants to strengthen its future on a nightly basis by airing interesting combinations such as Sunday in schedule #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.
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