Now that Ashton Kutcher, Charlie Sheen's replacement, guarantees another season of Two and a Half Men, top-rated network CBS turns to bolstering the rest of its lineup.
By Jeffrey R. Staab,, CBS
In Person of Interest, a presumed-dead former CIA agent (James Caviezel, left) teams up with a mysterious billionaire (Michael Emerson) to prevent violent crimes.
By Jeffrey R. Staab,, CBS
In Person of Interest, a presumed-dead former CIA agent (James Caviezel, left) teams up with a mysterious billionaire (Michael Emerson) to prevent violent crimes.
In a schedule to be announced to advertisers Wednesday, the network will add two comedies next season, most likely at 8:30 ET/PT on Mondays and Thursdays, and four new dramas, three of which cling to its cops-and-crime formula.
Do not expect radical changes such as last fall's move of Big Bang and Survivor. CBS often preaches stability of its schedule, and with shows including NCIS, The Good Wife and even first-year success Blue Bloods, the network can afford to stand pat.
On the outs are the sitcom Mad Love, the long-gone series $#*! My Dad Says and The Defenders, and ? with few other available slots for new dramas ? the midseason spinoff Criminal Minds:Suspect Behavior. Though CSI: NY had been endangered, all three shows in that franchise will return. But the fading original CSI might be moved from Thursdays to make room for a new drama.
The two new comedies are How to Be a Gentleman, a male-buddy comedy based on the book about an uptight columnist, starring David Hornsby and Kevin Dillon (Entourage); and Two Broke Girls, about 22-year-olds in Brooklyn. The shows are likely companions for The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother.
A New York-centric new-drama lineup includes Person of Interest, a J.J. Abrams-produced drama about an ex-CIA agent (James Caviezel), thought dead, who teams up with a billionaire (Lost's Michael Emerson) to stop crimes in the city.
Also due: Unforgettable, about a female NYPD detective (Poppy Montgomery, Without a Trace) who remembers everything, which helps at work but causes problems at home; and The 2-2, about six NYPD rookies (the title refers to their precinct), starring Leelee Sobieski, with Robert De Niro credited as a producer.
A fourth drama, A Gifted Man, breaks the mold but is reminiscent of former supernatural staples Medium and Ghost Whisperer. Gifted Man stars Patrick Wilson as a surgeon whose dead ex-wife gives him life lessons from beyond.
Thalía Kristy Swanson Georgina Grenville Tamala Jones Emilie de Ravin
