With today's column on CBS, we wrap up the preview of what the five broadcast networks have planned for the 2017-2018 season.
CBS remains the most-watched network and the oldest-skewing, with a lineup heavy on traditional police procedurals. There are some expected CBS-type shows on tap, but also some welcome surprises.
Before we get to the new stuff, let's have a moment of silence for those CBS shows that will not be back. Here are the cancellations: 2 Broke Girls; American Gothic; BrainDead; Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders; Doubt; The Great Indoors; The Odd Couple; Pure Genius; and Training Day.
The causalities range from the six seasons for the ribald and raunchy 2 Broke Girls, to the two episodes that Doubt managed to air before being unceremoniously kicked to the curb. Training Day was doomed when its star, Bill Paxton, died after the season was completed.
That's enough looking back. Time to focus on the fall, which includes David Boreanaz not losing a step in his life after Bones.
CBS renewed 23 of its current programs, leaving room for eight new series, six of which will debut in the fall and two later in the season. Here's the breakdown.
Comedies:
Young Sheldon. Sheldon is Sheldon Cooper of The Big Bang Theory, played by Jim Parsons. Parsons will narrate this prequel spinoff as we venture back to Sheldon's precocious childhood in east Texas, where church and football are king.
Playing the young genius at age 9, when he entered high school, will be Iain Armitage (Big Little Lies). Zoe Perry (Scandal) plays his God-fearing mother, Mary.
Inspired casting: Perry is the daughter of Laurie Metcalf (Roseanne), who plays Sheldon's mother on The Big Bang Theory.
9JKL. The sitcom stars Mark Feuerstein (Royal Pains) as a newly divorced actor who returns home to New York to live in an apartment sandwiched between his meddling parents and his competitive brother and family.
Bonus: The parents are played by veterans Linda Lavin (Alice) and Elliott Gould (MAS*H).
Me, Myself & I. Starring Bobby Moynihan (Saturday Night Live), the comedy deals with the defining moments in one man's life over three periods -- as 14-year-old Alex in 1991, at age 40 in present day, and at age 65 in 2042. It's almost like three comedies in one.
Bonus: Jaleel White (Family Matters' Steve Urkel) stars as present day buddy Darryl, and the incomparable John Larroquette is Alex in 2042.
Dramas:
SEAL Team. This military drama stars Boreanaz and follows the professional and personal lives of the most elite unit of Navy SEALs as they train, plan and execute the most dangerous missions.
Trivia: Boreanaz played FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth on Bones for 12 seasons. Booth was a former Army Ranger sniper.
S.W.A.T. Shemar Moore (Criminal Minds) stars as a Los Angeles Police Department S.W.A.T. sergeant with the heroic name of Hondo Harrelson. He finds himself trying to "bridge the world between the streets where he was raised and his brothers in blue."
Wisdom of the Crowd. Jeremy Piven (Entourage) plays a visionary tech innovator who creates a cutting-edge crowdsourcing app to solve his daughter's murder.
Coming later:
Not yet on the schedule are By the Book, a comedy about a guy (Jay R. Ferguson, The Real O'Neals) who decides to live his life strictly by the Bible, and Instinct, a drama starring Alan Cumming (The Good Wife) as a former CIA operative who is lured back to his old life by the NYPD when they need his help to stop a serial killer.
Here's how the CBS fall schedule starts out at a glance.
Monday: The Big Bang Theory; 9JKL; Kevin Can Wait; Me Myself & I; Scorpion
Tuesday: NCIS; Bull; NCIS: New Orleans
Wednesday: Survivor; SEAL Team; Criminal Minds
Thursday: Thursday Night Football
Thursday after football concludes Oct. 26: The Big Bang Theory; Young Sheldon; Mom; Life in Pieces; S.W.A.T.
Friday: Macgyver; Hawaii Five-0; Blue Bloods
Saturday: Drama reruns; 48 Hours
Sunday: 60 Minutes; Wisdom of the Crowd; NCIS: Los Angeles; Madam Secretary
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
Style on 06/04/2017