​After a CW and Golden-Globe-filled Sunday and a respite with James Corden on Monday, CBS took its turn on the stage at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena, Calif., on Tuesday.

Glenn Geller, president, CBS Entertainment, made his TCA debut, and brought a lot of positivity to the proceedings, touting the continued success of “America’s Most Watched Network.”

In season six, Blue Bloods has “more viewers every week than any scripted show on any other broadcast network other than Empire.”

CBS has had a fantastic fall season, with all of their freshman shows receiving back orders, featuring four of the top five new shows in viewers, with all of them boasting more than 10 million viewers.

According to Geller, when you factor in all forms of playback, more people are watching CBS shows than they were 15 years ago.

In this content frenzied world, “every viewer counts.” This is the 13th time in 14 years that CBS has been the most-watched network, Geller pointed out.

“CBS’ ability to build big audiences distinguishes our brand in all parts of our business,” said Geller. “It’s a good time to be a number-one network.”

Geller illustrated this with some numbers to demonstrate how CBS stands out among the 409 scripted shows on air, which is the number arrived upon by FX research late last year.

“CBS has the number-one and number-two most-watched series among those 409. We also have six of the top 10. Eighteen of the top 30. Twenty-eight of the top-50 most-watched shows. The four broadcast networks have 47 of the top 50 of that 409. I wasn’t a math major, but CBS is leading the top 50 shows, and that leaves 359 somewhere way over there,” said Geller. “Bottom line, CBS is a dominant presence in this ever-involving media [landscape.]”

Next Reality Entry? Hunter

Geller’s a self-professed reality nut as a viewer and programmer, and has plans for more reality at CBS, touting the arrival of Hunted, an adaptation of a British format.

His first buy as entertainment president for CBS, Hunted features teams of two people going on the run, hunted by real-life professional law enforcement, referred to as “the Hunters.” If they’re able to outlast the hunters for 28 days, the team receives $100,000.

“I think we found the next big reality hit. It brings a procedural element we’ve been showing our audience every year. It feels tailor made for CBS. I can’t wait to get it on the air.”

Hunted doesn’t yet have an air date, which was a theme throughout the panel.

What’s Staying, What’s Going

Geller was unable to provide any material Star Trek updates and was mum on the Halle Berry project in development, unsure about its future while the network remains in the pilot selection process.

Long a mainstay on the network, sitcom Mike & Molly will end after its forthcoming 13 episode season. Similarly, CBS has no plans to follow up on Under the Dome, which finished last summer after three seasons.

Person of Interest remains in limbo, with Geller unsure about the show’s future and whether the upcoming season is its last. The network ordered 13 episodes, which are set for the spring at an indeterminate date. Accordingly, the show’s season finale was made as a possible series finale in addition to functioning as its fifth-season finale.

Person of Interest and Mike & Molly are both notable because they are owned by Warner Bros. TV, but Geller denies that that’s a part of the equation.

“No question that ownership matters. We’re able to monetize the shows as a corporation, we can distribute them, and sell them internationally, [but] in neither case of Mike and Molly or Person of Interest has that come into play.”

CBS’ stalwart The Good Wife also has an uncertain future, with Michelle and Robert King not returning to the show this year. Geller points out that they have a deep bench on the show, with many writers who have been on the show from the start, but they haven’t decided the show’s fate beyond this season.

CBS is proud of their two new figures in late night with Stephen Colbert and James Corden, and don’t seem worried about how Colbert’s ratings have dipped.

“I think the show is fantastic. We want Stephen to be Stephen, and that’s exactly what he’s doing. He’s clearly the preeminent interviewer in late night,” Gellar said. “He criticizes both liberal and conservative candidates. There’s plenty of room in late
night for different opinions.”

In regards to CBS’ comedy slate, they have multi-cam, single cam and hybrid’s all in development, with a multi-cam from Kevin James in development that Geller “can’t wait to get on air.”

Big casting announcements for Supergirl are coming, but Geller refused to spill the beans this morning. But he does believe that the idea the show doesn’t fit the brand is a misconception.

“Does it fit CBS brand? I think it does. It’s in essence good guys putting bad guys away. She [just] happens to be a superhero.”

What matters most is that the show has given the network time period improvement, with some of their best numbers coming last week.

Prepping Midseason

CBS also is prepping to launch two new shows in midseason: Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders on February 10 and Rush Hour on March 31.

Executive Producer Mark Gordon addressed the difficulties of spin-offs, and how this is different than the last failed Criminal Minds spin-off, Suspect Behavior.

“It doesn’t always work. One of the things that did not help with Suspect Behavior is that we were trying too hard to be different. When you are creating a spinoff, you want something that’s fresh and different, but at the same time you want to honor the show that you’re spinning off from. Sometimes the desire to have an opportunity to create more is not always the best way to create a great show,” he said. “It took many years between Suspect Behavior and Beyond Borders. We took that time to find something really organic. We felt that it was not just taking an opportunity, but taking the right opportunity to create the right show, and would fit correctly in the Criminal Minds family.”

In both cases, their delayed premieres to midseason came because CBS has a very crowded schedule.

“We wanted to give it every opportunity to succeed, which is why we scheduled it when we did,” said Geller of Beyond Borders.

For Rush Hour, CBS plans to launch the show with a big push in NCAA March Madness.

“I think we’re doomed,” joked Bill Lawrence (Scrubs, Cougar Town), executive producer. “[Using] an IP is a risky roll of the dice. You can’t knock fans off of it. You hope the title brings people in and hope people will stay after that, long after the reverences to the features are gone.”

“The first rule with a show of this much diversity, is that we needed the three whitest guys to executive produce,” said Lawrence.

All jokes aside, on the subject of diversity and whether CBS is lagging in the department, Geller pointed out his own diversity.

“I’m just a gay guy from Indiana who doesn’t play basketball, and now I’m the president of CBS,” he said. “Can we do better? I think we are,” he said, referring to the two aforementioned new shows.

“CBS will always reflect what America looks like, always evolving and changing,” Geller said.

As such, a lot of CBS’ new series in development are set to have full African-American or Latino casts, where the network will be casting “color conscious, not color blind.”

But overall, Geller has no plans to change what’s been working with CBS.

“Our brand works. Our audience loves it. I love our shows. I’ve worked on them for 14 years, they are as much a part of me as the people who developed them. I’m looking to put out the same shows that our audience loves,” he said.

NCIS and Big Bang Theory fans rejoice.

[Cube image courtesy of CBS via Indiewire]

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