New Fall TV Season: CBS Announces Their Line-Up

CBS unveiled on Wednesday a new comedy and three dramas, including one starring LL Cool J, making slight adjustments to the only prime-time television schedule to increase its audiences in the past season.

The shows joining CBS' prime-time schedule this fall follow the network's pattern of serving up stable but popular fare: a legal drama, a medical drama, a crime drama and an ensemble comedy.

"Nobody likes hearing they're not sexy," CBS Corp Chief Executive Les Moonves told advertisers as he introduced the new schedule. "But the good news is we really like being No. 1."

To some degree, CBS faces less pressure than other TV broadcasters to announce radical schedule changes at the upfront, a period each spring when the networks set new prime-time lineups and advertisers pay billions of dollars for commercial time.

It was the only broadcast network to increase ratings during the 2008-09 season, and is home to "CSI," the top drama, "Two And A Half Men," the top comedy, and the long-running reality series "Survivor."

"I would think in today's marketplace stability would be pretty attractive to you," Moonves said.

Still, all the networks face a tough advertising market. This year's upfront could reap the networks 15 percent less revenue from ad deals than last year, analysts say.

CBS Corp, the media company that owns the broadcast network, derives most of its revenue from advertising, including billboards, radio spots and TV commercials, and has been hard hit by the ad downturn. CBS shares have fallen more than 65 percent in the past year.

CBS decided to create a spinoff of its crime drama NCIS, using a strategy that has worked for "CSI," the parent of "CSI: Miami" and "CSI: New York."

"NCIS: Los Angeles" will feature actor and musician LL Cool J and Chris O'Donnell, who appeared in "Scent of a Woman" and "Batman and Robin."

Another drama, "The Good Wife," features "ER" veteran Julianna Margulies as a lawyer who returns to work after her husband goes to prison for a political scandal.

The final new drama for the fall, "Three Rivers," centers on a transplant surgery team.

Another medical drama, "Miami Trauma," has been ordered for midseason, along with the police drama "The Bridge."

The only new comedy this fall on CBS is "Accidentally on Purpose," an ensemble show with Golden Globe winner Jenna Elfman playing a pregnant film critic.

CBS also will pick up "Medium," a crime drama canceled by NBC, and move its new hit show "The Mentalist" from Tuesday to Thursday nights. The network canceled "Without a Trace," "The Unit," and "11th Hour."