Analyzing the 2018 Fall Schedule: CBS

After an eventful couple of upfronts weeks, the five broadcast networks have put forth their fall 2018 schedules. There are some ingenious moves; there are some confounding moves. There are new shows hoping to be sampled and become the next big thing; there are relocated veterans hoping to improve their time slots and leg out a few more seasons. We won’t know whether each network put forth the right combination of shows until the fall, but that isn’t going to stop KSiteTV’s Craig Byrne and Shilo Adams from giving their annual first impressions on all five of the fall schedules. They’ll break down the schedule of every network on a nightly basis, telling you what surprised them and what they think might be set up for failure, all before naming everything from the most promising new show to worst scheduling move and what they’ll be watching in the fall.

Fourth on the docket is CBS, which comes into 2018-2019 touting the revival of Murphy Brown and the reboot of Magnum P.I.. The duo joins three NCISes, two shows in the Big Bang-verse, a MacGyver reboot, and a Hawaii Five-0 reboot on the CBS schedule, but a majority of the network’s new fall shows feature POC leads, so they’re at least trying to shake things up. Things won’t let up midseason as CBS has Nina Dobrev comedy Fam, which features a predominantly black ensemble, and American Crime-ish drama The Red Line.

But before you dig into what Craig and Shilo thought about each schedule, you can review their fantasy schedules below and rewatch the trailers for each of CBS’s new fall shows.

2018-2019 Scheduling Predictions: NBC | FOX | ABC | CBS | The CW

2018-2019 Scheduling Analysis: NBC | FOX | ABC | The CW

Trailers: God Friended Me | The Neighborhood | Happy Together | Magnum P.I. | FBI 

SUNDAY
CRAIG: 7:00 60 Minutes; 8:00 Magnum P.I.; 9:00 NCIS: Los Angeles; 10:00 Madam Secretary
SHILO: 7:00 60 Minutes; 8:00 Magnum P.I.; 9:00 NCIS: Los Angeles; 10:00 Madam Secretary
ACTUAL SCHEDULE: 7:00 60 Minutes; 8:00 God Friended Me; 9:00 NCIS: Los Angeles; 10:00 Madam Secretary

CRAIG: I’m old enough to remember when Touched By An Angel Sundays were a thing, so I’m not surprised that the Greg Berlanti-produced God Friended Me ended up in the Sunday at 8 slot.  The series will probably be right up the average CBS viewers’ alley, and unlike the recent religious-themed Kevin (Probably) Saves The World, it’s not banished to an awful time slot. While I think Magnum still would have been cool for Sunday night, I’m more than okay with this choice.

SHILO: I’ll give CBS this – if they were this dead set on premiering a religious drama this fall, Sundays at 8:00 is about a good a slot as they could’ve given God Friended Me. It’s early enough to catch the family audience, it’ll have football overrun during the fall, and it’s the only scripted drama in the hour, so it won’t have too much in the way of direct competition. But I don’t know, we just had a show like this in Kevin (Probably) fail to catch on and the CBS audience isn’t known for liking a wide variety of drama, so God Friended Me is going into the season fighting uphill despite its time slot. It doesn’t help that the trailer made the concept look creakier, more condescending, and more out-of-touch than the logline read; if CBS is challenging its core audience on Sundays and isn’t going for prestige a’la The Good Wife, what exactly are they doing here?