THURSDAY
SHILO: 8:00 The Big Bang Theory; 8:30 I’m Not Your Friend; 9:00 Mom; 9:30 Kevin Can Wait; 10:00 Limitless
CRAIG: 8:00 The Big Bang Theory; 8:30 I’m Not Your Friend; 9:00 The Odd Couple; 9:30 Mom; 10:00 Bunker Hill
SHILO: As with last year, I have Big Bang and its fall comedy lead-out moving to Thursdays together. The 9:00 hour is interesting, though, in that I think they’ll be (rightfully) tempted to put Kevin Can Wait there and possibly use reliable Mom on whatever they put at 10:00. Yet while I don’t know if I would really criticize that move beyond my discomfort with going New Show / New Show, I think they’ll give Mom the 9:00 slot and allow Kevin Can Wait to take up 9:30. Mom would get the boost from a more compatible lead-in than Life in Pieces was, which would extend to Kevin Can Wait, a project that has the chance to generate plenty of sampling on its own due to its star. With a strong 8:00 – 9:30, it could even breakout, something that would greatly help their 10:00 drama and possibly put that project in the position of winning the night, given that How to Get Away with Murder dropped around a third this past season and won’t have the Scandal lead-in for the fall.
So I wouldn’t be too upset if they went with something new at 10:00. However, I decided to go with Limitless, which is light enough to gel well with a comedy lineup. Absent CBS moving NCIS: Los Angeles to Thursdays and allowing Limitless its ideal lead-in in Scorpion, this is the best place that the Jake McDorman drama, wholly owned by CBS, could go and since I can’t see CBS shuffling most of its 10:00 shows like that, it’s where I think it ends up. As long as the opening season two arc is more casual viewer (and frankly, CBS viewer) friendly, I think it could take advantage of what might be a great lead-in and find the ratings foothold that it didn’t have for most of its freshman season.
CRAIG: Obviously, 8:00 will belong to Sheldon, Leonard and the gang of The Big Bang Theory. After that, I decided to pair the surprise ratings [relative] success of The Odd Couple with the world’s nostalgia for Friends by pairing Matt LeBlanc’s I’m Not Your Friend at 8:30 with Matthew Perry’s The Odd Couple at 9. At 9:30, strong player Mom.
10:00 is the slot that vexes me, and I figure the only thing I could think of to put there would be the drama Bunker Hill, because Jason Katims. I think there could still be life for Code Black, but the notion that it ended earlier in the season probably doesn’t help its chances. We’ll see, I guess. I do think Code Black has a bigger fan base than CBS might be aware of. This is one schedule placement I’m not completely confident in; even giving Beyond Borders a wider audience with a Thursday move might be a better choice. Scheduling Thursday is going to be hard.
