Photos
Video
RSS
TwitterCBS' plans for John Mayer, 'Moonlight' Star and 'NCIS' spinoff
With a successful first half of the TV season behind her, CBS President Nina Tassler had the luxury to make pronouncements Wednesday for CBS' Television Critics Association executive session that didn't ring false.
One of the biggest points she made was that in a climate of change, CBS still worked. You could say they put the "work" in network since the tried-and-true approach weren't necessarily outmoded when it came to pulling in the numbers.
Being the No. 1 network among viewers and in demos, not to mention debuting the No. 1 new show, the crime show The Mentalist, allowed CBS to point out that they've debunked the following television "myths":
1) There are too many crime dramas
2) Comedy is dead
3) Scheduling doesn't matter in a time-shifting world
4) Networks can't grow its audience
You see, the current TV system does work. Rejoice.
Here's an overview of what else was discussed
Dead and (Mostly) Buried
- The Ex-List was a good concept but "failed in its execution" and it "didn't find its pulse."
- Swingtown - CBS is proud of the execution and taking the risk, but it was "a victim of the strike."
Alive and Well
- 10 p.m. crime dramas - Despite NBC's move to make Jay Leno a fixture at 10 for five nights a week, CBS isn't concerned and will chug along producing its high-rated dramas. "Why should one network's failure in development redirect an entire scheduling strategy?" -- Tassler
- Drew Carey hosting The Price is Right - "Yes, [we're] very happy with Drew." There are no plans to replace him thus far.
Gestating
- Alex O'Loughlin - RIP Moonlight, but hey, at least Alex may be back. "Hopefully we will be doing a deal with him."
- John Mayer - "We're actually pretty close to closing our deal. It will be a music-variety-sketch thing show. It's being developed now. It could be a series of specials. It could be a series. We're just going to shoot the pilot now, see what we have and make a decision after that."
- NCIS spinoff - "We've seen an outline. We're in great shape and we're just waiting to get the script, but we're going to cast and we're going to shoot. Remember how NCIS was developed? It's still following in that tradition. NCIS was an episode of JAG, and this will be an episode of NCIS."
On the Horizon
- Harper's Island - The show needed a consecutive 13 weeks in order to build its serialized murder mystery. If all goes well, it will run from April 9 through July 2. The show is nearing the end of its production.
Your thoughts?
Post a comment
Zap2it Twitter Talk 
T***ler is a pig and always will be.
I will never forgive her for killing Moonlight in favor of The Ex-List.
WHAT A BAFOON!
I agree - she killed MOONLIGHT- and now all the vamp stuff coming out..
Nina T***ler can make good decisions. She has also made some extremely bad ones as well.
Her comments on the end of shows like Jericho and Moonlight have given rise to a lack of trust in her ability to fight for a show by some audiences.
Is she the one who killed "Swingtown"?
The lack of viewers killed Swingtown...and Jericho...and Moonlight...
Not sure how I feel about John Mayer (who is my favorite artist) doing something with CBS (my least favorite network)
Specially a variety show...EHHHHH
I loved Moonlight and the Ex-List. I think she and CBS are idiots
John Mayer hosting a variety show? Right.
Funny thing about the complaints about Moonlight and Jericho (both shows I watched and really liked) is that you think this woman cancelled them.
They got pitiful ratings and, like it or not, if only a small group watches them, they go away. While those who liked them enjoyed the writing, characters and the rest of it, the majority of viewers couldn't relate to the topics - at least, not enough to make time every week to watch them.
I'm not an apologist for this woman, but I think before you blame someone for taking away your favorite show (something I'm struggling with in regards to Pushing Daisies) you might wanna take a breath and look at the big picture: TV show must draw viewers to sell the adds to afford TV shows (repeat)
my $0.02
Brett-Moonlight didn't have pitiful ratings. It started off strong, but suffered due to the strike (just like Daisies). When Moonlight returned after the strike, even though ratings had dropped a bit, it was still garnering better ratings than most of the crap CBS puts in the Friday 9pm timeslot. Many entertainment outlets called 2008 "the year of the vampire". If CBS would have continued on with Moonlight, I think they would have found the audience that they were looking for. I know lots of people who were jumping on the Moonlight "fanwagon". CBS tries to make us feel better by saying that they've optioned Alex O'Laughlin for another project; however, as far as I'm concerned Alex O'Laughlin without Sophia Myles just doesn't work for me!
Moonlight had mediocre ratings at best. CBS had to cancel some shows that were doing OK in order to make room for new shows. Given the choice between canceling Moonlight and canceling Numb3rs, CBS would have been completely insane to keep Moonlight. Regardless, the top network on TV is not going to keep a show that cannot maintain a 2.0 in the demo. Period. End of discussion.