Crime To Pay For CBS This Fall

With the success of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and CSI: Miami, CBS has added more dramas to its 2003-04 fall schedule, attempting to draw more viewers like those that made the network number one among households this past season.

As CBS chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves noted of the new lineup, "There's a lot of crime...but crime is still working" as a means to bring in viewers and ratings that attract advertisers.

Among the new dramas are Jerry Bruckheimer's Cold Case, in which officials try to solve crimes working with only fragmentary data, which will air on Sunday nights; Navy CIS, described as a cross between JAG and CSI, which will air on Tuesdays; and The Handler, about the escapades of an FBI agent starring The Sopranos' Joe Pantoliano, which will air on Fridays.

Adding these to the two CSI shows, CBS will air a total of 10 hours of crime drama each week during the new season.

Other new CBS dramas include Joan of Arcadia, the story of a girl who talks to God, and The Brotherhood of Poland, N.H. from The Practice producer David E. Kelley — both shows targeted at younger audiences than CBS's median viewer age of 52.

"Crime pays," Yahoo! noted, reporting that Moonves spoofed his own image as a hard-nosed executive with a brief film parodying The Godfather at the presentation of the fall lineup.

Cold Case stars Kathryn Morris as a Philadelphia detective who studies unsolved crimes. Yahoo! reports that the Bruckheimer series will emulate CSI and Without a Trace.

Navy CIS (Criminal Investigative Service stars Mark Harmon, Michael Weatherly and David McCallum as naval officers assigned to investigate Marine Corps crimes. The Handler features an FBI agent who trains undercover officers to investigate crime in Los Angeles.

Yahoo! reported that advertisers approved of CBS's lineup. "I was extremely impressed," said Evan Greenberg of Allscope Media. "There are no obvious deadbeat shows."

For the complete CBS fall listing, visit Zap2It. Yahoo! coverage of the upfront presentation and the fall season may be found here and here.

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