Arrivals, Returns, & Departures - 03/17/2012

RETURNS (Series Renewals)

48 Hours Mystery, CBS, Season 26 -The first no-brainer renewal of the day sees the Tiffany network bringing back the multiple time Emmy and Peabody award winning investigative news magazine series for another trip down murder solving lane.

 

60 Minutes, CBS, Season 45(?!) - The elder statesmen of news magazine shows will return for another go around. In other news, sun rises in East, sets in West.

 

The Amazing Race, CBS, Season 21 - This perpetual Emmy winning reality competition series has certainly dipped in popularity in recent years, but it's fate was still never really in question. I honestly think that CBS will gladly keep picking up this show until it's ratings numbers hit zero, due to relatively inexpensive production costs.

 

Blue Bloods, CBS, Season 3 - This Tom Selleck fronted drama about a family of New York City cops quickly became a sleeper hit for CBS, and is regularly the top rated drama on Friday nights. It already survived a huge creative shakeup before it's sophomore season, so I wouldn't expect it to get derailed any time soon.

 

The Good Wife, CBS, Season 4 - In a somewhat surprising move, CBS has decided to bring back this Julianna Marguiles starring legal drama for a fourth year, after a few months where the show's future was in serious doubt. The series has drawn nothing but critical raves since the beginning, but audiences have just never responded with the big ratings numbers of other top network dramas. I guess when you're the highest rated network on TV, you can afford to take a risk on a good but underperforming show.

 

Undercover Boss, CBS, Season 4 - Just last year, the future of this reality series about multi-millionaire bosses seeing how the other half lives was in jeopardy. Its ratings were dropping, and it led CBS to send the show to the "Friday Night Death Slot". Then, to everyone's surprise, the show proceeded to do very well in it's new home, to the point where it's now coming back for another season. It just goes to show that on (very) rare occasions network executives actually know what they're doing.

 

Nothing new here either. Can you hear the crickets?

And that's all for this (second all CBS all the time) edition. Don't forget to keep checking future A,R,&D updates in the coming weeks. The closer we get to the April network upfronts and May sweeps, the more we'll be inundated with shows being dropped, picked up, and brought back. See you next time.

P.S. - I promise, that's all the CBS coverage for at least the next week of AR&D. Probably.