CBS Orders Two New Dramas, One Comedy

From left: Rebecca Breeds stars in "The Silence of the Lambs" spinoff "Clarice", Annaleigh Ashford and Thomas Middleditch star in comedy "B Positive", and Queen Latifah stars in "The Equilizer".
From left: Rebecca Breeds stars in "The Silence of the Lambs" spinoff "Clarice", Annaleigh Ashford and Thomas Middleditch star in comedy "B Positive", and Queen Latifah stars in "The Equilizer". (Image credit: CBS)

CBS has ordered dramas Clarice and The Equalizer, and comedy B Positive, for the 2020-2021 season. The network recently announced that 23 series are returning next season.

Clarice comes from Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet and stars Rebecca Breeds as Clarice, a brilliant and vulnerable FBI agent who returns to the field in 1993, six months after the events of The Silence of the Lambs. Kurtzman, Lumet and Heather Kadin are executive producers for MGM Television and CBS Television Studios in association with Secret Hideout.

The Equalizer is a reimagining of a classic series starring Queen Latifah as an enigmatic woman who uses her extensive skills to help those with nowhere else to turn. Chris Noth and Lorraine Toussaint are also in the cast. Andrew Marlowe, Terri Miller, Dana Owens (Latifah), John Davis, John Fox, Debra Martin Chase, Richard Lindheim, Shakim Compere and Liz Friedlander are executive producers for Universal Television.

The original Equalizer ran from 1985 to 1989 on CBS.

B Positive comes from Chuck Lorre and Marco Pennette, and stars Thomas Middleditch and Annaleigh Ashford. The comedy is about a newly divorced dad who is faced with finding a kidney donor when he runs into a rough-around-the-edges woman from his past who volunteers hers. They form an unlikely bond.

Lorre and Pennette are executive producers for Warner Bros. Television and Chuck Lorre Productions, Inc. James Burrows directed the pilot.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.