TVSquad

A CBS press release landed in my inbox today with this earth-shattering news: CBS's fall programming ads (20 total) will be featured exclusively in People's Sept. 22 issue.

From the release: "In a special arrangement with the magazine, CBS will be the exclusive broadcast advertiser in the issue, on stands Sept. 12." Of course, that's right before the launch of CBS's new fall lineup.

And it sounds like this might be a first. George Schweitzer, president of CBS Marketing Group says, "CBS has long valued its relationship with People, and we're elated that they worked with us to pull off this first-time strategy to be the sole broadcast advertiser in this well-timed issue." You know, whatever. Blah, blah, blah.

So why should we care? Honestly, I really don't. I just keep thinking, People? What, they couldn't come up with anything snappier? Like, I dunno ... maybe Entertainment Weekly? Vanity Fair? I guess with 43 million readers, they'll reach a lot of people in People.

The four CBS show panels on Friday involved four of the five new programs the network is rolling out in the fall (there was no panel for Gary Unmarried, or whatever they're calling it today, because Jay Mohr and his wife Nikki Cox are renewing their vows overseas). While the panels for The Mentalist, The Ex List, Eleventh Hour, and Worst Week had their moments, none of them were particularly newsworthy or interesting.

At least Diane Ruggiero, the creator of The Ex List, was entertaining enough to keep me from jabbing a pen in my arm to keep me awake. In fact, she might have actually convinced me to watch The Lake House, as long as I have a drink in my hand.

Nothing is exempt from betting, including television shows. According to Horizon Media's annual television report, Fox's new show Fringe and CBS' sci-fi drama Eleventh Hour will fare best of the new wave of freshman television shows. Doing worst would be NBC's Kath & Kim and CBS' Worst Week.

The report produced some unsurprising claims, such as that Grey's Anatomy, Heroes and Survivor will continue to kick butt in the ratings. The report did produce some surprises such as ABC overthrowing CBS on Friday nights and the Fox sitcom Do Not Disturb finding success. I guess we'll have to wait until the fall season to see how correct the report is.

What irks me is that after combing through the article I found no mention of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse. Did they forget to review that one? Is this a sign of things to come that Horizon Media didn't even find the show important enough to rank?

Yesterday, CBS presented their new schedule for 2008-09. If you'd like to see a sample of the new shows coming to CBS next year, click over to TV Week. There are clips from Eleventh Hour, The Ex-List, Harper's Island, Project Gary, The Mentalist and Worst Week. I've given them a once-over (actually, I watched them more than once) and here's my impressions. That means if you want to watch them fresh without my observations mucking up yours, take a look at them first before reading on.

It looks like the American version of Eleventh Hour is already heading to series. The Bruckheimer-produced series is based on the short-lived ITV series of the same name which starred Patrick Stewart and Ashley Jensen. It will be shown on CBS and the selected showrunners will be Cyrus Voris and Ethan Reiff, formerly of Sleeper Cell.

The British version of the show has developed something of a cult following, despite the fact that only four two-part episodes were aired. It is science fiction, but it tries to be very realistic science fiction. It's mood is closer to CSI than to most of the more fantastic sci-fi shows out there.