'Two and a Half Men' May Soon Be Outnumbered

By Lisa de Moraes
Thursday, May 15, 2008

NEW YORK, May 14

After a botched season of singing gamblers, vampire detectives and kid nations sent CBS from No. 1 to No. 2 among viewers for the first time in six seasons, the network is heading back to safer ground, adding two procedural crime dramas and two male-centric comedies to its fall prime-time slate.

Three of CBS's five new series are revamps of overseas shows, part of a growing trend by networks to go with shows that have succeeded in other markets and for which, in most cases, there is already a multi-season template.

Also, strong women are in this year, CBS programming chief Nina Tassler told reporters and TV critics Wednesday at Lox with Les -- CBS's traditional, convivial Upfront Day morning media schmooze at Black Rock, hosted by CBS CEO Les Moonves, who is still the best press wrangler the TV biz has seen since the late Brandon Tartikoff, way back in the glory days of NBC.

"Women drive network television; women watch our procedurals and comedies, and we wanted to build on that -- we've added more female faces to the network," Tassler said. During development season, she noted, CBS execs asked TV writers if some of the male characters they'd written in new series could be rewritten as women.

All of which we thought meant CBS would try to emulate the success the basic cable networks have enjoyed of late with dramas built around strong, deeply flawed female characters -- you know, Glenn Close in "Damages," Kyra Sedgwick in "The Closer," Holly Hunter in "Saving Grace," blah, blah, blah.

Until we combed through the new CBS lineup and realized the only new series starring a woman is a one-hour show about a chick frantically looking for a husband among all her male dates and lovers, present and past, after being told by a fortuneteller she had to get married in a year or she would never marry -- the horror! -- and that she's already dated her future husband.

"The Ex List," which is a redo of an Israeli series, is headed to CBS's Friday at 9, following "Ghost Whisperer," in which Jennifer "Love to Her Friends" Hewitt sees dead people. The new show stars Elizabeth Reaser, the chick who lost her face but gained a doctor lover on "Grey's Anatomy."

In fairness, "The Ex List" is replacing the vampire detective guy on "Moonlight."

Speaking thereof, you scary sci-fi fans obsessed with "Moonlight" -- don't bother shipping tons of garlic to CBS suits. Because they've wised up after the "Jericho" peanut-blitz experience and know that tons of peanuts do not translate to additional viewers -- just cheap "Big Brother" props.

And "The Unit" is adding a female character, according to Tassler, plus the women are moving off the base. Hooray! Those are among the things the executive producers decided to do to save the show, which was on the fence during schedule-setting season. "The Unit" has been moved to Sundays at 10 so CBS can move "Without a Trace" to Tuesdays at 10 to provide a nice 9 p.m. hammock that night for new procedural drama "The Mentalist," which does not star a chick, but does star Simon Baker.

He plays a former celebrity psychic who was -- shockingly -- a fraud, who is now working as a special consultant/detective with the California Bureau of Investigation, and who has a remarkable track record for solving crimes using his razor-sharp skills of observation. Yes, it's very "Psych"-ish -- but it stars Simon Baker. We're sorry to report that one reporter chick asked Tassler whether Baker would smile this time (he's been on other CBS series in which he did not) and whether he would take his shirt off, and have a dog.

(Yes; not dignified with a response; and no, in case you're interested.)

Taking advantage of the competition's general lack-of-comedy-ness, CBS will again try to launch a comedy block on Wednesday nights, moving "The New Adventures of Old Christine" to 8, followed by new "Project Gary" at 8:30. The last time CBS tried a comedy night was in fall '05 with "Still Standing" and "Yes, Dear." "Project Gary" stars Jay Mohr as a recently single painting contractor. This show, too, has a lot of female characters: his "controlling ex-wife" (Paula Marshall), his politically correct and environmentally conscious 11-year-old daughter (Laura Marano), and his "gorgeous new girlfriend" (Jaime King).

Yup, there are a lot of chicks on this show.

Another new comedy, "Worst Week," gets the coveted post-"Two and a Half Men" slot. It's about an entertainment magazine editor -- a guy -- who will do anything to please his fiancee's conservative parents, but somehow always turns into a one-man wrecking crew whenever he's around them. Think guy in diapers. The single-camera comedy is based on the British series of the same name.

This is a good time for CBS to take another whack at adding a comedy block. Not only is the competition kind of comedy-free -- no pesky sitcom competition on Wednesday night -- but also advertisers love them, they tend to skew younger, and they tend to do things like come back from strikes stronger than dramas, probably because with virtually no continuing story line, no plot momentum is lost during three-month shutdowns.

"We really wanted to focus on comedy and we had the goods to do it this year," Tassler said, adding that the two new sitcoms are "two of the highest-testing new comedies we've had in years."

Unlike last season, when CBS drank some crazy juice and decided to swing for the fences, this year the network will confine its experimentation to tinkering with its trademark procedural crime dramas, adding more personal story arcs for the characters.

"We do very well with our procedurals but we've added more character to them," Tassler said Wednesday.

And, speaking of procedurals, no CBS new season is complete without a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced one. Next season's offering: "Eleventh Hour," based on the British miniseries by sci-fi writer Stephen Gallagher. Rufus Sewell stars as a brilliant biophysicist and special science adviser to the government who works passionately "to protect the substance of science from those with nefarious motives," CBS says. It's getting CBS's cushiest, post-"CSI" time slot.

And here's a new take on the CBS procedural: midseason drama "Harper's Island" will kill off at least one character every week until they run out of characters, at which point the show presumably will end. It's about a group of people who get on a boat bound for an island off Seattle for a "destination wedding." As explained by CBS, just because you're on the guest list doesn't mean you're going to make it to the wedding. Tassler described it as " 'Ten Little Indians' meets 'Scream.' "