CBS Orders Five New Shows, Issues 17 Renewals

NEW YORK, May 16: CBS is adding just five new series to the
fall schedule—three dramas, one comedy and one reality show—and has
renewed 17 shows for the season, among them the comedies How I Met Your
Mother, Rules of Engagement and The New Adventures of Old Christine.

Also granted renewals were the three series in the CSI franchise, Cold Case, Without a Trace, NCIS,
The Unit, Criminal
Minds, Ghost Whisperer, Numb3rs
and Shark, as well as the comedy Two
and a Half Men. Among the series that will not make it back for the
fall are the comedy The Class and
the dramas Jericho and Close
to Home.

In announcing the new season, Nina Tassler, the president of
CBS Entertainment, noted: "We approached our development this year with a
specific goal in mind—to be daring and different. The fall and mid-season
series we have selected offer creativity and variety with great potential to
excite and surprise television audiences everywhere."

On Monday, CBS is pairing the returning How I Met Your
Mother with the new show, The Big
Bang Theory, to create a young adult comedy
block. Warner Bros. Television’s The Big Bang Theory is a comedy from Two and a Half Men cocreator Chuck Lorre about two brainy best friends.
The 8 p.m. hour of comedies leads into Two and a Half Men and Rules of Engagement, followed by CSI: Miami, heading into season six.

NCIS and The
Unit return to fill the Tuesday 8 p.m. to
10 p.m. block, leading into Cane
at 10 p.m. Cane stars Jimmy Smits
in an epic drama about the external rivalries and internal power struggles of a
large Cuban-American family running a successful rum and sugar business in
South Florida. It is from ABC Studios in association with CBS Paramount Network
Television.

Wednesdays will lead off with a new reality series, Kid
Nation, where 40 kids aged 8 to 15 attempt
to form a functioning society in an abandoned New Mexico ghost town. The 9 p.m.
to 11 p.m. slot remains unchanged with Criminal Minds and CSI: NY.

Thursdays will continue to be led by Survivor and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, while Without a Trace moves back to the 10 p.m. slot, after spending this
season in a Sunday-night position.

Fridays will begin with the returning Ghost Whisperer, followed by Warner Bros. Television’s
Moonlight at 9 p.m. Moonlight, from movie producer Joel Silver, is about Mick St.
John, a vampire who uses his “undead” skills to work as a private investigator.
Numb3rs is back on the schedule
at 10 p.m.

Saturdays will feature CBS's Crimetime programming from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., followed by 48
Hours: Mystery.

On Sunday, CBS will once again open with 60 Minutes, while 8 p.m. will be home to Viva
Laughlin, based on the British hit Viva
Blackpool. Executive produced by Hugh
Jackman, the show is a mystery drama with music about eternal optimist and
freewheeling businessman Ripley Holden, whose sole ambition is to run a casino
in Laughlin, Nevada. It is a production of BBC Worldwide Productions, Seed
Productions and CBS Paramount Network Television in association with Sony
Pictures Television. Cold Case
will broadcast at 9 p.m., followed by the James Woods legal drama Shark on a new night at 10 p.m.

For midseason, CBS has ordered the returning The Amazing
Race and The New Adventures of
Old Christine, as well as the drama Swingtown. From the director of Big Love and Rome,
Swingtown is set in an affluent
Chicago suburb in the 1970s. It is from CBS Paramount Network Television. CBS
has also ordered the reality series Power of 10, hosted by comedian Drew Carey, for this summer.
Michael Davies is executive producer for Embassy Row in association with Sony
Pictures Television.