No Major Hits or Misses As CBS Gets Critical Eye

CBS' two-day portion of the Television Critics Association's press tour last week generated some buzz with a handful of promising programs. While CEO/President Les Moonves was mostly out of commission, other execs spoke of the network's long-form strategy, its new series and its Monday-night comedy plans, which include moving Two and a Half Men into the critical spot once held by Everybody Loves Raymond. It was also able to get some ink for its digital-media efforts and upcoming revamped Emmy telecast.

Although none of it was earth-shattering, Chris Ender, who oversees entertainment PR for the network, nonetheless deemed the event a success. “I've seen press tours where some sessions were only half full and some shows became hits,” he says, “and I've seen sessions where the seats are full and the critics are engaged for 45 minutes and the shows didn't do so well.”

With mixed reviews from the critics, the only certainty is that nothing on the network's fall schedule generated “must-see” status the way ABC's Desperate Housewives and Lost did last year. But then again, critics saw promise in both of CBS' new sitcoms, How I Met Your Mother and Out of Practice, while dramas like Criminal Minds got some raves.

Moonves missed most of CBS' portion of the tour for practical, tactical and logistical reasons, says Ender: “The practical is that he's got a new, bigger job and can't be everywhere at one time. The tactical is that, by having him up on the stage, the agenda gets shifted to things other than programming at times. And the logistical is that he had a Viacom board meeting in New York.”

Entertainment President Nina Tassler, for her part, asserted that the broadcast networks have reclaimed the water-cooler buzz from cable, thanks to ABC's hits and CBS' CSI and Survivor. Tassler was asked about the decision to cancel critical darling Joan of Arcadia, which is being replaced in the lineup by Ghost Whisperer, the Jennifer Love Hewitt starrer about a woman who can talk to dead people. One writer asked Tassler if she agreed with Moonves' comments at the CBS upfront presentation in New York, in which he said the network thinks talking to dead people skews younger than talking to God.

“I wouldn't use those words exactly,” Tassler responded. “Obviously, Joan was a very sad loss for us. We just were not getting the audience back. And the truth is, anytime you put on a new show in an existing time period, you're taking a risk.”

Beyond presenting programming and making some executives available to the media, Ender insists, the goal of the press tour is to “reinforce positive thoughts and change previous negative perceptions.”

How well CBS succeeds on those fronts won't be known until fall, when reviews come out. While critics' predictions don't necessarily translate into ratings success—many love Fox's Arrested Development—it is hard to overlook the fact that they got behind ABC's Housewives and Lost, the two biggest new hits of this past season.

CBS highlighted its new and returning Monday sitcoms on the now Raymond-less night and got decent critical reaction. USA Today critic Robert Bianco says he's glad to see new shows How I Met Your Mother and Out of Practice steer away from “the fat, dumb man with the beautiful wife” format that seems to be a hallmark of CBS comedies. “I see promise in both of those,” he says.

Mother, with former Doogie Howser, M.D. star Neil Patrick Harris, helped itself with a strong panel discussion at TCA. Charlie McCollum, a critic for San Jose, Calif.'s Mercury News, thinks it could be CBS' “best hope” for Monday night: “I wouldn't be shocked to see it on at 9:00 by the end of the season. I'm just not as confident in Two and a Half Men as the CBS executives are.”

Although some critics panned Out of Practice, the general feeling is the strong ensemble cast, which includes Henry Winkler, will help.

The plethora of sci-fi shows on all the networks was a big topic, too. “I think Threshold isn't badly done, but during the session, the critics are even having trouble keeping the new sci-fi shows separate,” says The Sacramento Bee's Rick Kushman. “If we supposed 'professionals' can't keep track ... getting viewers to hook on seems really tough.”

And no matter how hard CBS tried, it had trouble selling Ghost Whisperer. But as often is the case, a show ripped by critics could still find an audience.

“It is just so laughably bad, it's off of the bomb chart even,” says Bianco. “Which may mean that it does very well. It may tap into the audience that has been waiting for CBS to give them the next Touched by an Angel.”