Prediction: CBS Fall 2011

I thought I would start off before the new season starts on my predictions for the new shows and a bit of commentary on the network. My first prediction is the with the CBS network. All of my predictions are either based on three things, either the blurb explaining the premise of the show from the network or elsewhere online or from previews I have seen for the program and what I enjoy as television programming. Also, CBS as it has for the past few years have had very slots to fill with their success of programming so finding its next big hit may be hard compared to what is already there and established.

First, of all, CBS has been my go-to network for quite a few years especially with the three CSI shows, How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory. I was a test audience member in Las Vegas in 2000 for the first CSI, five months before it aired and then once at the CBS Television City section of the MGM Grand in 2005 for How I Met Your Mother around a month before it aired.

New Shows:

2 Broke Girls: Apparently TV wants to cater and remind people that most of us are living in a recession and have limited funds and decided to green light a show about two broke, working girls (no, not that type) in a diner type setting. TV Guide mentioned it as "like Laverne and Shirley". Well, that show was funny. To me the idea of women working in a diner was done before, it was called "Alice" a classic in my book. My opinion is that since CBS is hyping the crap out of it that they hope it will succeed. They did the same thing to S#*T my Dad Says and that didn't return. I don't see this show lasting beyond one season if that.

Unforgettable: This show has a Cold Case feeling to it. The show about the woman who remembers every last detail sounds like a guy's worst nightmare. CBS has truly become the crime-fighting cop show network. I think it has promise. I say a full season guaranteed.

Person of Interest: The show has promise since it has two familar names behind it JJ Abrams and Christopher Nolan's brother, Jonathan. The show about preventing future crimes to me sounds like the Tom Cruise movie. I am not a Tom Cruise fan and JJ Abrams for the most part has had a good run with his programs (I haven't watched many of them), but it is a rehashed idea and Undercovers bombed last year. Its a gamble in my eyes. I think the network will see it fail and decide it is a crime to keep it on the network a full season.

How to be a Gentleman: TV Guide says it is a new updated Odd Couple in a sense. Eh...no two actors can ever be Mathau and Lemmon from the classic movie, hell even Randall and Clugman. This will go away faster than Cop Rock did.

A Gifted Man: A doctor that sees his dead ex-wife. What is it with CBS taking shows that are rehashes? Seriously they took Medium after NBC trashed it and then gave it a full season and a shortened additional season. It won't last.


I don't see these shows really sticking out like Mike & Molly did last season. As I stated CBS is pretty solid with its programs so it may not hurt them if none of them make it beyond this season or even to the winter break. My main concern is with the original CSI. I think if CBS plays it right that this series can be the powerhouse it once was and can live as long if not longer than Law & Order did for NBC. The changes that are coming this season have me worried. I understand why they went with Ted Danson, he is a grand departure from William Petersen and Laurence Fishburne in terms of the leading guy. However, they are replacing theatre trained actors with Sam Malone! I haven't seen Danson's dramatic work so I can be completely wrong and I hope I am!

Rumors online state that Marg Helenberger is leaving earlier this season instead of staying until the end even if she wasn't in every episode due to perhaps the downgrade of the position for her character for the arrival of Danson. Also, this is the first season since CSI started in the Fall of 2000 that it is not in the 9:00 pm slot on Thursdays. I had my concerns last year when CBS moved CSI: Miami and CSI: NY and they came close to biting the dust. The move of time slots and the departure of their second leading male star for the show and soon their leading female star has disaster waiting to happen written all over it. I hope it survives.

The elephant in the room so to speak is Two and a Half Men. I haven't had much of an opinion on this since I have only seen a handful of episodes. What I saw I enjoyed, but I am hardly a loyal fan. I know that The Drew Carey Show faltered in their last two years when the actress that played Kate left and they introduced "an old crush" of Drew's as the new love interest. Also, ABC screwed around with the time slot that pretty much killed it. (I know I should save this for my ABC prediction blog commentary). Even though they didn't replace the main character like Two and a Half Men is doing, Drew Carey's job changed, other actors had reduced roles and killed what made it great. I know with 'Men' that so much attention is going to be focused on Ashton Kutcher and the absence of Sheen and how he compares or doesn't compare.

I think the real focus should be aside from seeing how goofy of death Charlie Harper will be explained is can Jon Cryer carry the show? He is funny, but he is a second bananna. Nothing against him, but I think adding Kutcher could an interesting turn in direction for the show, but Cryer I don't think can take the weight of the show on his shoulders. I am not on Sheen's or Lorre's side in the whole story that got beaten into the ground earlier this year, but unless Cryer with help from Kutcher boosts the show beyond the first few weeks it is going to be DOA.

Next blog: NBC.