Analyzing the 2016 Fall Schedule: CBS

MONDAY

SHILO’S PREDICTIONS (FOOTBALL): 8:00 The Big Bang Theory; 8:30 Man with a Plan; 9:00 Scorpion; 10:00 NCIS: Los Angeles
SHILO’S PREDICTIONS (NO FOOTBALL): 8:00 Life in Pieces; 8:30 Furst Born; 9:00 Scorpion; 10:00 NCIS: Los Angeles
CRAIG’S PREDICTIONS (FOOTBALL): 8:00 The Big Bang Theory; 8:30 Kevin Can Wait; 9:00 Scorpion; 10:00 Limitless
CRAIG’S PREDICTIONS (NO FOOTBALL): 8:00 Kevin Can Wait; 8:30 2 Broke Girls; 9:00 Scorpion; 10:00 Limitless
ACTUAL SCHEDULE (FOOTBALL): 8:00 The Big Bang Theory; 8:30 Kevin Can Wait; 9:00 2 Broke Girls; 9:30 The Odd Couple; 10:00 Scorpion
ACTUAL SCHEDULE (NO FOOTBALL): 8:00 Kevin Can Wait; 8:30 Man with a Plan; 9:00 2 Broke Girls; 9:30 The Odd Couple; 10:00 Scorpion

SHILO: In a vacuum, I like the idea of CBS going with a four comedy lineup here. This is a night where they’ve had a lot of comedy success over the years and where these will be the only broadcast comedies on Mondays in the fall, there is an opportunity to find an audience. And where NCIS: Los Angeles was shifted to Sundays, Supergirl flew away to The CW, and Limitless didn’t make it to a second season, I understand CBS not wanting to surround Scorpion with new programming on both sides. Still, the show, which was a strong success in its freshman season, already getting pushed to 10:00 kind of feels like the network is giving up on it, as 10:00 is the last stop CBS dramas make before being retired onto Sundays or Fridays.

However, I’m not sure I like the composition of the comedies here since the success of the night depends on a new show. While Kevin James is a familiar name and face for CBS audiences, there’s no guarantee that his show can be a lead-in after six episodes of being paired with The Big Bang Theory. I understand that when you pick up a show from someone with a profile like James, you’re likely not looking for a bottom of the hour comedy, but if Kevin Can Wait disappoints, Man With a Plan‘s chances immediately get cut off at the knees, which would then reverberate through the 9:00 and 10:00 hours. And there’s the whole matter of CBS not leaving a single comedy on the midseason bench, so if one of the newbies disappoints, they might be reaching for Big Bang repeats earlier than usual and having a regularly scheduled repeat, even if it does as well as Big Bang repeats do, isn’t a good look.

I think this lineup could very well succeed, but going from zero comedies to four comedies, in addition to ask two new comedies to air together, might be too much too soon.

CRAIG: The biggest thing that stood out to me about the CBS Monday plan is that I didn’t see Scorpion moving to a later slot at all, and going back to the “viewers are used to the same thing” bit, I’m not sure audiences will really be down with that. Scorpion at 9 with a new drama (or Limitless) at 10? That would be great. But the alternative? No, not sure about that.

I’m also not sure if the Kevin James and Matt LeBlanc hour will jump out as much as they’d like for it to — though maybe it will; it certainly will do better than when NBC recruited stars like Michael J. Fox and Sean Hayes a few years ago. 2 Broke Girls seems to perform solidly too, but The Odd Couple has already seen some decreases throughout the season, which would not be good for Season 3.