CBS spices up schedule with vampires, 70s swingers

Reuters ^ | May 16, 2007 | Paul Thomasch and Steve Gorman

[Zakeet]

Leslie Moonves, president and CEO of the CBS Corp. presents his nitwork's answer to the competition - more T&A, inane reality shows, and absurd drama.

[lilylangtree]

Vampires? Wish “Forever Knight” would return to television.

[blu]

More trash, and they canceled "Jericho", one of the few watchable guys Skeet is SO HOT shows they had. Oh, well, they're still not as bad as ABC aka Pimp Disney At Every Op.

[AbeKrieger]

The second new reality series called the "Power of 10" asks contestants to predict results of survey questions.

Isn't this called "Family Feud" ?

[Dilbert San Diego]

Give us more of Katie Couric. She’s a fish out of water on the evening news. Put her out there in the morning or on more 60 Minutes type news magazine shows.

[Diogenesis]

They do know the American public. Courage.

[sharkhawk]

The network also rolled out two new reality shows, one called "Kid Nation," where 40 children, ages 8 to 15, spend 40 days in one town setting their own rules with no parents supervising them.

Huh. How can this be a good idea. Any parent that signs an 8 year old for this should be investigated by the DCFS.

[TheRiverNile]

They need to change their logo while they’re at it. They’re not in the optometry business.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

The network also rolled out two new reality shows, one called "Kid Nation," where 40 children, ages 8 to 15, spend 40 days in one town setting their own rules with no parents supervising them.

And they didn't entitle it "Lord Of The Flies"?

[AbeKrieger]

Let’s do a reality show where Don Imus in costume coaches an inner-city girls’ basketball team. No one knows it is Imus until the series finale.

We can have a gay Jewish assistant coach.

[LongElegantLegs]

"Those of you who accuse CBS of being too conservative will feel differently when you see the shows we've lined up,"

I bet this is going to be their worse season ever...

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Beyond its four new fall dramas, CBS also took the wraps off of one fresh comedy, "The Big Bang Theory," which features a couple of nerdy scientists who become entangled with a beautiful new neighbor.

Why, what a sly title. This should be at least as successful as having Katie Couric anchor the Evening News.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Among the most off-beat new series CBS plans for the fall is "Viva Laughlin," which is billed as part musical, part thriller and based on the British hit "Viva Blackpool." Produced by film star Hugh Jackman, who will also make guest appearances, "Viva Laughlin" centers on a young man trying to open a casino in the desert town of Laughlin, Nevada.

A cross between "Cop Rock" and "Vegas"?

Pure television genius.

[Dilbert San Diego]

sounds like fun. Yep, let’s get more creative with the reality show concepts.

Let’s face it, it’s tough to be in the TV business. At the major networks, they have so much competition from the basic cable channels, premium channels such as HBO, as well as home video and services like Tivo which allow people to watch on their own schedule, if they want to watch at all.

The three major networks combined had 92% of the prime time TV audience in 1977. Today they have less than 50% and it keeps dropping.

[KarlInOhio]

More trash, and they canceled "Jericho", one of the few watchable shows they had.

Was this show killed by the 2 1/2 month gap between the two halves of the season? A gap that long can kill a show. I watched it through November, but the shows after that have just filled up space on my DVR.

[SittinYonder]

"Those of you who accuse CBS of being too conservative will feel differently when you see the shows we've lined up," CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves

Who has done that?

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Vampires? Wish “Forever Knight” would return to television.

I was hoping for another revival of "Dark Shadows" myself. Barnabas Collins lives!

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Les, what’s the frequency?

[Argus]

I liked the show they did on Jericho where they recapped all the preceding shows in one hour, so the audience could get caught up. I liked it, but then I never watched the show again. However I think all these shows should have highlight reels, where you get the entire season’s worth of plot points digested into one hour. That’s about as long an attention span as I now have.

[AmishDude]

I don’t think Les is talking politically. I think he’s talking about CBS’ reputation for having an old audience and for milking the CSI franchise.