CBS an Eye of Calm in the Lineup Storm

With roughly three dozen new prime-time series expected to premiere on network television next fall, CBS will try to offer viewers some stability--introducing seven new programs but returning nearly all its existing shows in their same time slots.

The network, which presents its lineup to advertisers today, has scheduled three of those seven new programs on Mondays. Rebuilding that night has become a top priority for CBS, having lost more than 40% of its Monday audience this season.

CBS will split up its only returning Monday shows, “Cosby” and “Everybody Loves Raymond,” moving the latter to 9 p.m. and scheduling new sitcoms after each of them. The newcomers are “King of Queens,” about a blue-collar family in New York; and “The Benben Show,” a comedy starring “Dream On’s” Brian Benben as a Los Angeles TV anchorman who gets demoted when the station brings in new talent.

Closing the night is a new drama, “L.A. Docs,” starring “thirtysomething’s” Ken Olin as a physician who opens his own practice in Southern California.

Not wanting to tamper with success, the network won’t alter its high-rated Sunday crew of “60 Minutes,” “Touched by an Angel” and a movie, and will also leave Thursday night intact. Meanwhile, CBS will bring back a Tuesday movie following the military drama “JAG,” having unsuccessfully experimented this year with dramatic series in its place.

The network will add two shows on Wednesdays, inserting “Maggie Winters,” starring “Murphy Brown’s” Faith Ford as a newly divorced woman who returns to her hometown, after “The Nanny,” and “To Have and to Hold”--a romantic comedy-drama that has cop Jason Beghe married to lawyer Moira Kelly--before “Chicago Hope.”

CBS will also try to punch up its Saturdays with “Martial Law,” an action show featuring Hong Kong martial arts star and director Sammo Hung, who teams with two L.A. cops to search for his arch-nemesis. That show will lead into the high-kicking antics of “Walker, Texas Ranger.”

The network will follow a similar strategy Fridays by adding “Buddy Faro,” a detective show starring “Crime Story’s” Dennis Farina, before the Don Johnson police series “Nash Bridges.”

Several high-profile programs failed to make the cut, as CBS has for the most part come up short with its strategy of wooing viewers back with big-name stars. Absent from next fall’s lineup are the David Caruso series “Michael Hayes,” Tom Selleck’s “The Closer,” “Cybill,” “Family Matters,” “Step by Step,” “Brooklyn South” and the long-running Jane Seymour drama “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.”

Bryant Gumbel’s newsmagazine is also off the schedule but will remain on the air this summer and could return next year. Similarly, CBS continues to wrestle with “60 Minutes” producer Don Hewitt about launching a second edition of the venerable newsmagazine, which still might occur later in the season.

CBS attracts the oldest audience among any of the major networks, which has presented a challenge in its dealings with Madison Avenue, since most advertisers covet viewers between the ages of 18 and 54. Despite ranking second to NBC in total audience, CBS thus lags behind in translating those viewers into ad revenue.

The network’s lineup for the coming season skews heavily toward drama, with 12 one-hour programs scheduled and just six comedies. By contrast, NBC’s roster contains 14 sitcoms, with a dozen on ABC.

Like NBC, CBS will possess an ownership stake in most of its new programs, meaning the network will share in potential profits if those shows become hits and are sold into syndication. Such ownership rights have become increasingly important to the networks as their share of the prime-time audience dwindles.

Here’s the new CBS fall schedule, with new shows in bold:

Sunday: “60 Minutes,” “Touched by an Angel,” CBS Sunday Movie.

Monday: “Cosby,” “King of Queens,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “The Benben Show,” “L.A. Docs.”

Tuesday: “JAG,” CBS Tuesday Movie.

Wednesday: “The Nanny,” “Maggie Winters,” “To Have and to Hold,” “Chicago Hope.”

Thursday: “Promised Land,” “Diagnosis Murder,” “48 Hours.”

Friday: “Kids Say the Darndest Things,” “Candid Camera,” “Buddy Faro,” “Nash Bridges.”

Saturday: “Early Edition,” “Martial Law,” “Walker, Texas Ranger.”

* ‘20/20’ VISION: ABC plans to combine “PrimeTime Live” and “20/20.” F2