Cliff Lipson/CBSThe fall will not rise for Moonlight.
As first reported yesterday by E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos, the cult favorite vampire-detective show was one of a handful of series that didn't make the cut today as CBS unveiled its new fall schedule. Others: James Woods' Shark and controversy's Kid Nation.
Elsewhere, cable's TNT announced plans to challenge the broadcast networks with three nights of original programming by 2010, and touted several proposed new series, including an Elvis impersonator-detective show from George Clooney and a new action-crime drama from the cocreator of 24.
CBS bubble shows whose bubbles did not burst, as they were invited back, included The New Adventures of Old Christine, How I Met Your Mother and The Unit.
Befitting its image as the network most married to the script, as it were, CBS will introduce five new scripted series, more than any network so far. (Fox, the last broadcast network on the board, issues its fall schedule tomorrow.)
The new CBS shows are:
- Worst Week, a Meet the Parents-aspiring sitcom;
- Project Gary, a divorced dad comedy starring Jay Mohr;
- The Mentalist, a procedural crime show with an Aussie twist starring Simon Baker;
- Eleventh Hour, with Rufus Sewell as a "brilliant" scientist that the brilliant government waits to the last minute—aka the eleventh hour—to call; and,
- The Ex List, an hourlong dramedy about a thirtysomething woman who, acting under the influence of a psychic, hunts down her ex-boyfriends to find her future husband.
Also more than any other network so far, CBS fiddled with the time slots of its returning shows. Come the fall, The Unit travels from Tuesdays to Sundays; Without a Trace shifts from Thursdays to Tuesdays; and, Christine trades Mondays for Wednesdays, where the network will try to establish a second comedy block.
Rules of Engagement will move from Mondays to the bench, where it'll remain until it's called up as a midseason replacement. CBS announced only one other midseason show: Harper's Island, a new murder mystery drama.
Thought not on the fall schedule, long-running reality series Big Brother will return as a summer series.
The Moonlight faithful, meanwhile, were not taking the news of Moonlight's cancellation well. Not were they taking it lying down.
"This is absolutely not the time to stop campaign or showing love for the show," read a post on the fansite Moonlight Fans. "…We're not going anywhere, and neither should you."
While it didn't lack for ardent viewers, Moonlight apparently lacked for enough viewers. The freshman drama was the weakest link on Friday night, averaging 7.5 million viewers, nearly 1 million fewer than its lead-in, Ghost Whisperer, and some 1.5 million fewer viewers than its 10 p.m. neighbor, Numb3rs.
Shark (10.4 million) put up better numbers than any of those three shows, and better numbers than any number of renewed ABC and NBC shows. Its reward: Out after two seasons.
CBS' long-expected, if not long-gone, casualties, included: Jericho; Cane; the spring comedy Welcome to the Captain; and, the one-and-done misfire Viva Laughlin.
Not to be left out, the Turner cable networks announced a batch of new shows and projects. TNT talked up six proposed shows, including Clooney's Delta Blues, and the untitled show from 24's Joel Surnow, called the Untitled Joel Surnow Project. TBS renewed 10 Items or Less, ordered 26 more episodes of the Tyler Perry comedy House of Payne, and said it was developing six new scripted and late-night shows, including a proposed half-hour comedy to star and be executive produced by William H. Macy.
Here's a night-by-night look at CBS' 2008-09 fall schedule:
Sunday: 60 Minutes, The Amazing Race, Cold Case, The Unit
Monday: The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, Worst Week, CSI: Miami
Tuesday: NCIS, The Mentalist, Without a Trace
Wednesday: The New Adventures of Old Christine, Project Gary, Criminal Minds, CSI: NY
Thursday: Survivor, CSI, Eleventh Hour
Friday: Ghost Whisperer, The Ex List, Numb3rs
Saturday: Crime show reruns, 48 Hours MysteryWhat's the fate of your fave shows and stars? Watch With Kristin has all the scoop from the New York upfronts!