CBS slumber ends; a fresh surge is coming

For CBS, the winter slumber is finally ending.
It’s been a long one. Most shows haven’t had a new episode since mid-December; it was Dec. 9 for “NCIS: Origins,” Dec. 8 for “DMV.”
Now — after 9-10 weeks of hibernation — the surge begins. In one stuffed week, CBS has:
— Two new series: “CIA” at 10 p.m. Monday (Feb. 23) and “Marshals” (shown here) at 8 p.m. Sunday, March 1.
— The start of the 50th “Survivor.” It gets a three-hour launch, at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 25.
— And the return of 11 more series, from “The Neighborhood” at 8 p.m. Monday to “Tracker” and “Watson,” at 9 and 10 p.m. Sunday, March 1.
There will still be a tad more the following week. The “NCIS” shows — bumped by the State of the Union on Feb. 24 — return March 3. The next night, the new “America’s Culinary Cup” joins “Survivor” on Wednesdays.
The new dramas are from steady sources: “CIA” is from Dick Wolf, producer of “FBI” (which it follows) and NBC’s Chicago and “Law & Order” shows; “Marshals” has many of the settings and characters of “Yellowstone.”
All of the returning shows had marathon pauses — the usual Christmas/New Year break, extended until after the Olympics.
Most have already been renewed for next season. The exceptions are “DMV” and “Watson,” plus “The Road” (which has finished its season) and “The Neighborhood” (which had announced this would be its final season).
And most follow CBS’ approach: There’s a case-of-the-week — none of that serialized-season stuff — but there are also ongoing stories for the characters.
That’s the formula that works well on Fridays. “It’s like the excitement of solving the crime, of putting out the fire,… plus the emotional arcs that connect these characters,” Morena Baccarin, whose “Sheriff Country” is followed by “Fire Country” and “Boston Blue” — told the Television Critics Association.
That continues with the new dramas. As he molded “Marshals,” Spencer Hudnut said, he was encouraged to go beyond the weekly plot. CBS people “have been very open that they want this to be a non-traditional procedural …. So we will always lean into character more than the procedure.”
When Mike Weiss created “CIA,” he savored the notion of putting a by-the-books FBI guy alongside a secretive CIA agent.
Still, he said, there’s room for big adventures. “There are a lot of really creative bad guys out there who keep thesmelves and the FBI and the CIA busy.”