http://www.usatoday.com/life/televis...schedule_x.htm
Solid CBS Has Its Eye On The Offbeat
By Gary Levin, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — Dharma and Greg are back on TV, but Joan and Amy are history.
CBS' fall schedule — which will be unveiled at a presentation for advertisers today — includes separate new series featuring Jenna Elfman and Thomas Gibson, who co-starred in ABC's hit comedy Dharma & Greg, which lasted from 1997 to 2002.
But two-year drama Joan of Arcadia and six-year drama Judging Amy have been canceled.
Wednesday's edition of 60 Minutes —the subject of controversy over its segment on President Bush's National Guard service — has an uncertain future, while Jason Alexander sitcom Listen Up is not expected back. But warhorse sitcom Yes, Dear will return after a strong performance paired with The King of Queens this spring.
CBS this month ends its third consecutive season in first place among all viewers and has made surprisingly strong gains among young adults, where it is just behind Fox in an extremely close race.
Although Joan had a loyal core audience, ratings plummeted this season as the show's focus shifted. Both Joan and Amy were among CBS' lowest-rated series among the younger viewers so sought after by advertisers.
The network also loses TV's top comedy, Everybody Loves Raymond, but has a solid hit in Two and a Half Men to inherit Raymond's Monday at 9 ET/PT time slot. It's the kind of succession NBC lacked when Friends exited last May.
Unable to score with softer dramas such as Joan and this season's failed Clubhouse, CBS has drafted new shows that are heavy on crime, despite three CSIs, Without a Trace and Cold Case on its returning lineup.
But the network is taking a gamble with two paranormal or sci-fi series, continuing a trend evident at other networks. CBS' off-beat experiments:
•Ghost Whisperer, with Jennifer Love Hewitt as a newlywed who communicates with the dead (but, in a twist, solves no crimes). It's based on psychic James van Praagh's work.
•Threshold, a sci-fi drama about a mysterious alien life form, with a cast that includes Charles Dutton, Brent Spiner (Star Trek) and Carla Gugino.
The network has three new sitcoms. Among them is Elfman's Everything I Know About Men, which marks CBS' first female-driven comedy in a few years; the network is known for being home to sitcoms led by tubby men with hot wives. (Old Christine, a comedy pilot starring Seinfeld's Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a divorced mom, was passed over but has a shot at a future midseason order.)
Other new shows (some for midseason):
How I Met Your Mother, a flashback comedy about a single man looking for his future wife.
Flesh & Blood, a sitcom from the producers of Frasier about a family of single doctors, starring Stockard Channing and Henry Winkler.
American Crime, yet another series from producer Jerry Bruckheimer, about a new-mom prosecutor battling suburban crime.
Criminal Minds, a suspense thriller about the FBI behavioral-analysis unit. Features Dharma's Gibson, Shemar Moore and Mandy Patinkin (Chicago Hope).
The Unit, a drama about members of a military commando unit and their families. Stars Dennis Haysbert (24); from David Mamet and producer Shawn Ryan (The Shield). Likely for midseason.