TELEVISION: CBS moves things around for fall television season

Of all the big networks, CBS is the stablest.

They’ve built a steady stream of procedurals and comedies that continue to draw in viewers.

As in seasons past, CBS didn’t make any really big moves this fall. They kept the shows that were working – even giving The Mentalist a last-second reprieve in the final week of pickups.

The biggest surprise of the new CBS schedule come in the form of just how many new shows they did pick up (and the one that is glaringly missing from their schedule). The one that didn’t make the schedule was the much touted (and fan derided) How I Met Your Father, which is officially dead in the water. Most fans thought it was a terrible idea in the first place – so it’s probably for the best.

New shows getting shots included Scorpion, a show about a genius that recruits other geniuses to solve NCIS franchise, this time in New Orleans; Stalker, a police procedural about stalking victims and perpetrators (conveniently paired with Criminal Minds); The McCarthys, a comedy about a working class family and their sports bar (which stars New Kid on the Block Joey McIntyre); and Madam Secretary, a high concept drama starring Tea Leoni.

problems; a new entry in the

I will probably check out a few of the new shows. Whether any of them stick, though, is still up in the air.

Mike & Molly, The Mentalist, Undercover Boss, The Odd Couple and Battle Creek are all slated for mid-season debuts.

The Odd Couple stars Matthew Perry from Friends and is a takeoff of the original show while Battle Creek (yes, set in Battle Creek, Mich.) stars Josh Duhamel in another police procedural that I will watch just because it’s set in Michigan.

My favorite thing CBS did this spring, though, was to announce that Two and a Half Men would (finally) be put out to pasture and this would be its final season. It's about time.

Here’s the new fall schedule for CBS:

Monday
8 p.m. – The Big Bang Theory /2 Broke Girls (Oct. 27)
8:30 p.m. – Mom
9 p.m. Scorpion
10 p.m. – NCIS: Los Angeles

Tuesday
8 p.m. – NCIS
9 p.m. – NCIS: New Orleans
10 p.m. – Person of Interest

Wednesday
8 p.m. – Survivor
9 p.m. – Criminal Minds
10 p.m. – Stalker

Thursday
8 p.m. – Thursday Night Football/ The Big Bang Theory (Oct. 30)
8:30 p.m. -- The Millers (Oct. 30)
9 p.m. – Two and a Half Men (Oct. 30)
9:30 p.m. – The McCarthys (Oct. 30)
10 p.m. – Elementary (Oct. 30)

Friday
8 p.m. – The Amazing Race
9 p.m. --  Hawaii Five-0
10 p.m. – Blue Bloods

Sunday
7 p.m. – 60 Minutes
8 p.m. – Madam Secretary
9 p.m. – The Good Wife
10 p.m. – CSI: Cyber

What do you think of the new CBS schedule?