CBS is playing it cool

IT doesn’t bother CBS Corp. President Leslie Moonves that the other guys get all the attention -- that much.

“We are the most stable network,” he told reporters at an early morning news conference at the network’s Midtown headquarters Wednesday. “I know it doesn’t quite get the buzz. It’s good to have a couple grand slam home runs; we’ve got a lot of doubles. And you score more runs with doubles than home runs, as long as you have enough of them, and we do.”

To that end, CBS moved conservatively in designing next fall’s schedule, retaining 18 shows (six that were new to this season) and adding just four new programs to the mix. (Three other shows were tapped as midseason replacements.)

The move leaves the network chockablock with crime procedurals like the “CSI” franchise that have helped make CBS the top-rated network among total viewers, even if they lack the wattage of such programs as ABC’s “Lost” and Fox’s “American Idol.”

“People may want to knock our procedurals all they want, but they repeat great,” Moonves said. “We do great week after week. We don’t have huge highs and huge lows. We are not the manic-depressive network.”

That said, he admitted that network officials were hoping next season’s slate of programming would draw some more notice to CBS.

“There was an attitude, ‘OK, we don’t get as much noise as everybody else,’ ” Moonves said. “And we’re human; we like getting the buzz -- although I like winning more.”

Still, the network recognized “that you want to see something different from us,” he added, “and I think you will this year.”

To that end, CBS deviated a bit from its usual fare in picking its new programs. There are no new crime procedurals, for one thing, but a trio of character-driven dramas.

“Smith” stars Ray Liotta as the head of a crew of career criminals seeking their final heist. In “Jericho,” a small Kansas town struggles to cope when it is plunged into isolation by a nuclear mushroom cloud. “Shark,” CBS’ highest-testing pilot, features James Woods as a former defense attorney who grows disenchanted with his work and switches to the prosecutor’s office.

CBS’ only new comedy on the schedule, “The Class,” comes from “Friends” creator David Crane and hinges on the reunion of a group of twentysomethings who all were in the same third-grade class.

The new shows have been sprinkled throughout the week and paired with long-standing hits in an effort to draw the biggest audiences.

“We felt that we’re taking some swings, but we’re taking swings within an environment of strength,” Moonves said.

In one of its biggest moves, the network is switching ratings winner “Without a Trace” from 10 p.m. on Thursday to the same time slot on Sunday. Moonves said they decided to make the change even before they knew that ABC was shuttling its hit show “Grey’s Anatomy” from 10 p.m. on Sundays to 9 p.m. on Thursday.

By scrapping the CBS Sunday night movie and adding “Amazing Race” to the Sunday night lineup, network officials believe “it’s going to be a night where we’re going to be up considerably,” he said. “You’re going to see a vast improvement.”

“Obviously, ABC is not going to be as strong as they were without ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ there,” Moonves added.

The CBS chief called ABC’s decision to move its top show “a big” and “bold move,” but said that he nevertheless was confident that “Grey’s Anatomy” would not significantly erode “CSI,” its new competition on Thursdays.

“Network television has proven, when you have two great hit shows on in the same time period, they don’t cannibalize each other; television grows,” he said, adding that he expects NBC to be the network to back down from that time period. Earlier in the week, NBC announced it would air its much-buzzed-about “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” at 9 p.m. on Thursdays.

“If I were Aaron Sorkin, I wouldn’t be very happy this morning,” Moonves said of the show’s creator.