CBS Liveblog: Just Because We're Completist...

Get our liveblog of the CBS presentation to advertisers at Carnegie Hall

By Jennifer Godwin May 21, 2009 3:15 AMTags
LL Cool JMichael Simon / Startraks

What happens when LL Cool J delivers a volume-to-11 performance of "Mama Said Knock You Out" to a room full of Mad Men advertising executives at the CBS upfront presentation at Carnegie Hall?

Read on to find out. Plus, get the latest news on Medium and the comedy stylings of Neil Patrick Harris:

CBS PRESENTATION LIVEBLOG

1:01 p.m.: Medium was added to the CBS lineup too late in the game to make it into the official CBS series montage. Obama, on the other hand, has been in just about every network montage at upfronts week. Obama does get good ratings...

1:06 p.m.: Les Moonves lays the smack down on the other networks: "Only CBS is delivering growth in every category. Flat is not the new up; at CBS, up is the only up." And I believe this may be a crack at NBC's Ben Silverman: "There's a difference between the model being broken and not being able to find any hit shows for years."

1:25 p.m.: Neil Patrick Harris drops by to promote the CBS comedies. In character as HIMYM's Barney Stinson, he tells the "bros" in the audience to hit on women at the CBS upfronts party by mentioning the dirtiest-sounding shows on CBS: The Big Bang Theory and 69 Minutes. He then quips, "I wish The Unit was still on the schedule."

1:35 p.m.: And now the moment you've all been waiting for: new show clips! Nina Tassler tells us that The Good Wife is a "story of redemption" starring Julianna Margulies and that, "[Her character] returns to the workplace with convictions and a husband who's been convicted." Ah...we gather from the trailer that the husband, played by Chris Noth, was wrongly convicted of corruption charges—he's still a stinkin' cheater though.

1:40 p.m.: Accidentally on Purpose looks funny! Jenna Elfman comes home to find her young baby daddy in her bed. He wants to hook up. She's not into it. Him: "When you said don't touch my stuff, I thought you meant your soy milk and your computer." Her, pointing to her girl parts: "No, I meant my stuff." Jenna's in the audience and I suddenly realize that she's a great deal more charismatic than Dharma & Greg ever led me to believe.

1:44 p.m.: Alex O'Loughlin's Three Rivers looks very...glossy. You could even say artificial and inauthentic. Among other things, in real life, organ-donor families and recipients are forbidden from meeting, but there's such an encounter in this show, allowing for lines like, "Now you have to live for her too!"

1:56 p.m.: Oh dear lord. In conjunction with the NCIS: Los Angeles trailer, LL Cool J is here to perform "Mama Said Knock You Out." In Carnegie Hall, at the ultraconservative CBS upfronts, this is just bizarre. Among other things, the suits simply refuse to raise the roof, despite LL's best efforts to energize the crowd. When LL is done unnerving the auditorium full of Don Drapers, Nina Tassler says, "That was fresh. Or dope. I can't remember which is which."

1:55 p.m.: Big cheers and applause from the crowd when Nina Tassler mentions Medium. Later Nina tells us, "The compatibility of Ghost Whisperer with Medium is downright spooky."

1:56 p.m.: The Bridge appears to be Norma Rae meets The Wire meets Third Watch. Aaron Douglas looks fabulous; it's great to see him break out from the Battlestar Galactica ensemble.

2:05 p.m.: Undercover Boss is as sentimental and heartwarming as Secret Millionaire, the show it's ripping off.

And that's that for CBS. Stay tuned for tons of American Idol finale coverage and tomorrow morning, the final upfront of the week: the CW!

And be sure to check out our gallery of the new fall shows...