The "Big Bang" Prequel, Shemar Moore's Return, And More Are Coming To CBS Next Season

Here are the shows CBS has ordered to series so far.

CBS

CBS found itself in familiar terrain coming into the 2017–2018 television season: It is No. 1 in total viewers, and it has the No. 1 comedy (The Big Bang Theory), No. 1 new comedy (Kevin Can Wait), No. 1 drama (NCIS), and No. 1 new drama (Bull) on broadcast (all in total viewers).

"We are Must See TV," said Leslie Moonves, the CEO of CBS Corporation, with respect to NBC. “You cannot live without the shows we have.”

Kelly Kahl, senior executive vice president of CBS Primetime, also pointed out that NCIS has more viewers than This Is Us. Kahl offered his congratulations to NBC, but “we like winning,” he said. (The popularity of This Is Us among 18- to 49-year-olds, the demographic advertisers seek, was not mentioned.)

CBS is hoping that The Big Bang Theory and Kevin Can Wait will help launch three of their biggest new comedies: 9JKL; Me, Myself & I; and Young Sheldon.

Elsewhere on the schedule there is very little shuffling. Bull stays sandwiched in between NCIS and NCIS: New Orleans. It’s TV’s most-watched night, Kahl noted. “No need to change anything here,” he said. This fall Bull will be the only drama airing at 9 p.m. on Tuesdays, with NBC, ABC, and Fox airing back-to-back comedy blocks.

CBS

Wednesday sees the launch of SEAL Team, starring David Boreanaz, in between Survivor and Criminal Minds, which moves to 10 p.m. “High-octane, good natural bridge between the two shows,” Kahl said of the new series.

After Thursday Night Football ends, The Big Bang Theory will move to Thursdays at 8 p.m. to launch Young Sheldon, a spinoff focusing on Jim Parsons’ beloved character. The tone is more like Wonder Years than Big Bang, Kahl noted. And though the Big Bang cast signed contracts for two more seasons, Moonves said he hopes that's not the end of show. "In my book, Everybody Loves Raymond left three years too early," Moonves added.

At 9 p.m. on Thursdays, CBS has Mom and Life in Pieces airing back-to-back against This Is Us on NBC, Scandal on ABC, and The Orville on Fox. While Kahl was bullish about CBS's odds in the hour, he did note of NBC’s buzziest series, “I wouldn’t want to be another serialized drama and I wouldn’t want to be a new show against it.” At 10 p.m., Shemar Moore will return in S.W.A.T. “Our audience loves him,” Kahl said of the Criminal Minds alum.

Fridays remain unchanged with MacGyver, Hawaii Five-O, and Blue Bloods. “Three shows that probably don’t get a whole lot of hoopla out there, but they’re shows that work for us,” Kahl said of the trio of series, each of which draws more than 10 million viewers and wins its timeslot. “Friday night is a tough nut to crack,” Kahl said, but he feels this solid trinity is more than up for the task of taking on the competition, which he jokingly referred to as “the island of misfit toys.”

CBS

On Sundays, Jeremy Piven leads off the night as a Steve Jobs–esque tech wizard who designs an app to crowdsource crime-solving in Wisdom of the Crowd. Kahl said the show reminded him of CSI in terms of how it may move the needle of the crime show genre. Wisdom of the Crowd will be followed by NCIS: Los Angeles and Madam Secretary.

During a press breakfast with CBS, NPR’s Eric Deggans brought up the fact that all of CBS’s new shows star men and they’re joining a schedule that is already heavily male. Moonves noted that “more women watched CBS percentage-wise than any other network.” He added that as a CEO of a corporation, he has to look at what’s happening everywhere on CBS, not just in its primetime programming, but also in its morning shows as well as on its sister networks The CW and Showtime.

Deggans wondered if CBS might be heading in the wrong direction compared to networks like FX, which has shown its commitment to hiring more women behind the camera. “I think we’re fine in terms of the amount of women who are behind the camera, in front of the camera," Moonves replied. "I think we're doing a very good job. Forgive me, I don't think we're looking in the wrong direction. On the contrary.”

Here’s what CBS has coming to TV in the 2017–2018 season:

9JKL (Mondays at 8:30 p.m.)

CBS

Who's in it? Mark Feuerstein, Linda Lavin, Elliott Gould, David Walton, Liza Lapira, Matt Murray

Who created it? Dana Klein, Mark Feuerstein, Aaron Kaplan, Wendi Trilling, Dana Honor, Pamela Fryman

What's it about? This comedy — about a family living under one roof, but in three separate apartments — is inspired by Feuerstein’s real life.

First impression? I rarely chuckle at CBS comedies but found myself genuinely laughing more than a few times while watching the trailer for this charming comedy. Many of the funniest moments came from the inimitable Lavin, who looks to have found a way to make the heart shine through her overly clingy mother character. —Jarett Wieselman

Me, Myself & I (Mondays at 9:30 p.m., then 9 p.m. post-football)

CBS

Who's in it? Bobby Moynihan, Jack Dylan Grazer, Brian Unger, Jaleel White, Kelen Coleman, Skylar Gray, Christopher Paul Richards, Mandell Maughan, Reylynn Caster, Sharon Lawrence, John Larroquette

Who created it? Dan Kopelman, Aaron Kaplan, Dana Honor, Randall Einhorn

What's it about? The show follows one man at three separate points in his life: as a 14-year-old in the past, a 40-year-old today, and a 65-year-old in the future.

First impression? This seems like quite the departure for CBS — a high-concept comedy partially set in the future! (Hopefully they don’t kill the mother this time.) I’m excited to see Moynihan in a lead role, and while he provided the most laughs in the trailer, Larroquette and Grazer brought enough heartstring-pulling moments to make me reconsider my slight aversion to CBS comedies. —Marcus Jones

SEAL Team (Wednesdays at 9 p.m.)

CBS

Who's in it? David Boreanaz, Max Thieriot, Neil Brown Jr., A.J. Buckley, Toni Trucks, Jessica Paré

Who created it? Ben Cavell, Ed Redlich, Sarah Timberman, Carl Beverly, Chris Chulack

What's it about? An inside look at the lives of Navy SEALs.

First impression? All due respect, Angel lovers, but I do not find Boreanaz to be a worthy leading man, and that really shows in this trailer for S.W.A.— I mean, SEAL Team. His character, the head of an elite branch of the Navy, has PTSD and consistently juuuust makes it to the important events in his kid's life. This looks like the kind of military drama we've seen many, many times before, but maybe not on TV. Still, considering CBS's very male-heavy lineup, it's nice to see Paré and Trucks as badass women involved in the operations. So I'll give it that. —Jaimie Etkin

Young Sheldon (Thursdays at 8:30 p.m.)

CBS

Who's in it? Iain Armitage, Zoe Perry, Lance Barber, Raegan A. Revord, Montana Jordan (Jim Parsons narrates)

Who created it? Chuck Lorre, Steven Molaro, Jim Parsons, Todd Spiewak, Jon Favreau

What's it about? This Big Bang Theory prequel focuses on Sheldon Cooper as a 9-year-old genius in his Texas hometown.

First impression? Sheldon has skipped to high school, where he does not fit in, of course. Young Sheldon looks very sweet — but it doesn't seem to have a lot of laughs in this trailer? It may be the tonal difference between an obnoxious adult, played by Parsons on Big Bang, and an obnoxious child (Armitage, who was so great in HBO's Big Little Lies as Shailene Woodley's character's perhaps-sinister son). Barber, Paulie G. on The Comeback, as Sheldon's dad and Perry, the very creepy mystery terrorist on Scandal recently, are touching here as they struggle to help and connect with Sheldon. Young Sheldon is a single-camera comedy, as opposed to the multi-cam style of Big Bang: CBS excels at multi-cam and has had less success with single-camera shows, so airing one after another will be an interesting experiment. —Kate Aurthur

S.W.A.T. (Thursdays at 10 p.m.)

CBS

Who's in it? Shemar Moore, Stephanie Sigman, Alex Russell, Jay Harrington, Lina Esco, Kenny Johnson, Peter Onorati

Who created it? Aaron Thomas, Shawn Ryan, Neal Moritz, Marney Hochman, Danielle Woodrow, Pavun Shetty, Justin Lin

What's it about? Inspired by the ’70s TV show and 2003 film of the same name, S.W.A.T. centers on a SWAT sergeant who finds himself stuck in between his duty to the job and the LA streets he grew up in.

First impression? Based on the source material and, frankly, the show's home on CBS, I didn't expect S.W.A.T. to be so intensely focused on attempting to heal the deeply fractured relationship between the police and the black community in Los Angeles. Whether that investigation into race relations carries on past the pilot remains to be seen, but it would certainly help separate S.W.A.T. from the other police dramas on television. —J.W.

Wisdom of the Crowd (Sundays at 8 p.m.)

CBS

Who's in it? Jeremy Piven, Richard T. Jones, Jake Matthews, Blake Lee, Natalia Tena, Monica Potter

Who created it? Ted Humphrey, Avi Nir, Alon Shtruzman, Peter Traugott, Rachel Kaplan, Dror Mishani, Shira Hadad, Adam Davidson

What's it about? A brilliant tech genius invents a crowdsourcing application to help solve his daughter's murder.

First impression: What if a show thought that surveillance and vigilante culture were good? At first glance, that’s what Wisdom of the Crowd appears to believe. Piven plays kazillionaire Jeffrey Tanner, who enlists the public (with a $100 million reward as incentive) to help find his daughter’s murderer. Along the way, people (who are probably on Reddit) start using the software to help solve other crimes, which at first annoys Tanner, until he decides that “people want to be a part of something meaningful.” This bit of dialogue is said as a group of cell-phone-holding citizens crowd around an alleged criminal. Maybe the show will examine these dilemmas, but based on the cutdown, this ain’t Black Mirror! —K.A.

Instinct (Midseason)

Dave Kotinsky / Getty Images

Who's in it? Alan Cumming, Bojana Novakovic, Daniel Ings, Naveen Andrews, Khandi Alexander

Who created it? Michael Rauch, Alex Kurtzman, Heather Kadin, James Patterson, Bill Robinson, Leopoldo Gout, Alan Cumming, Marc Webb

What's it about? Based on James Patterson's upcoming book, Instinct follows a CIA agent turned professor/writer who's brought back into the fold when the NYPD asks him to help them catch a serial killer.

By the Book (Midseason)

Charley Gallay / Getty Images

Who's in it? Jay R. Ferguson, Lindsey Kraft, Ian Gomez, David Krumholtz, Tony Rock, Camryn Manheim

Who created it? Patrick Walsh, Johnny Galecki, Andrew Haas, Spencer Medof, Andy Ackerman

What's it about? A man begins to live every day of his life according to the Bible.

Here's CBS's fall 2017 schedule:

Monday

The Big Bang Theory, 8 p.m.

*9JKL, 8:30 p.m.

Kevin Can Wait, 9 p.m.

*Me, Myself & I, 9:30 p.m.

Scorpion, 10 p.m.

Monday post-football

Kevin Can Wait, 8 p.m.

*9JKL, 8:30 p.m.

*Me, Myself & I, 9 p.m.

Superior Donuts, 9:30 p.m.

Scorpion, 10 p.m.

Tuesday

NCIS, 8 p.m.

Bull, 9 p.m.

NCIS: New Orleans, 10 p.m.

Wednesday

Survivor, 8 p.m.

*SEAL Team, 9 p.m.

Criminal Minds, 10 p.m.

Thursday

NFL Thursday Night Football, 8 p.m.

Thursday post-football

The Big Bang Theory, 8 p.m.

*Young Sheldon, 8:30 p.m.

Mom, 9 p.m.

Life in Pieces, 9:30 p.m.

*S.W.A.T., 10 p.m.

Friday

MacGyver, 8 p.m.

Hawaii Five-0, 9 p.m.

Blue Bloods, 10 p.m.

Saturday

Crimetime Saturday, 8 p.m.

48 Hours, 10 p.m.

Sunday

60 Minutes, 7 p.m.

*Wisdom of the Crowd, 8 p.m.

NCIS: Los Angeles, 9 p.m.

Madam Secretary, 10 p.m.

Note: An asterisk (*) indicates a new show for the 2016–2017 season.

Note: In mid-May every year, the five television broadcast networks — NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and The CW — present their new shows and upcoming schedules to advertisers at events called upfronts. That’s why you see an onslaught of new programming in May, as well as the cancellation of current shows. This post will be continually updated.