CBS today unveiled its 2015-2016 primetime lineup, featuring seven new shows and 22 returning series.
Major highlights:
- New fall dramas include "Code Black," "Limitless" and "Supergirl."
- New fall comedies include "Angel From Hell" and "Life in Pieces"
- 22 series return to CBS
- New dramas "Rush Hour" and "Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders" will premiere during the season.
- New "NFL Thursday Night Football" kicks off on CBS Sept. 17.
- The premiere of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" will be Sept. 8.
- The two-hour series finale for "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" will be Sept. 27.
- CBS will present "Super Bowl 50" on Feb. 7, 2016.
- Ted Danson will join Patricia Arquette on the cast of "CSI: Cyber."
Two new dramas also set to premiere in 2015-2016 include the buddy-cop drama “Rush Hour,” based on the successful film franchise, starring Justin Hires as a maverick detective from Los Angeles and John Foo as a stoic detective from Hong Kong who knock heads when they are forced to work together; and “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders,” a “Criminal Minds” spinoff starring Emmy Award winner Gary Sinise about the International Division of the FBI tasked with solving crimes and rescuing Americans in danger while abroad.
The new fall dramas are: the heart-pounding medical series “Code Black,” set in the busiest, most notorious ER in the nation; the fast-paced “Limitless,” based on the feature film with Bradley Cooper, starring Jake McDorman as an average guy who can suddenly access 100 percent of his brain capacity with a mysterious pill; and “Supergirl,” starring Melissa Benoist in the title role based on the DC Comics superhero.
[ >>>>FOR ALL CBS PROGRAMMING UPDATES ON FACEBOOK LIKE OUR WHAT'S ON WHIO PAGE! ]
The new fall comedies are: “Angel from Hell,” about a loud, colorful, often inappropriate woman who claims to be a guardian angel, starring Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner Jane Lynch and Maggie Lawson; and “Life in Pieces,” an irreverent look at a family’s sometimes awkward, often hilarious and ultimately beautiful milestone moments, starring Academy and Emmy Award winner Dianne Wiest, Emmy Award winner James Brolin, Zoe Lister Jones, Colin Hanks, Angelique Cabral, Thomas Sadoski, Betsy Brandt and Dan Bakkedahl.
The 22 returning shows for the 2015-2016 season are dramas NCIS, television’s No. 1 drama for six consecutive seasons; NCIS: New Orleans television’s #1 new show of the 2014-2015 season; “Blue Bloods”, “Criminal Minds”, “CSI: Cyber”, “Elementary”, “The Good Wife”, “Hawaii Five-0”, “Madam Secretary”, “NCIS: Los Angeles”, “Person of Interest” and “Scorpion”. The comedies are “The Big Bang Theory,” television’s #1 scripted program, the critically acclaimed “Mom”, “The Odd Couple, “Mike & Molly” and “2 Broke Girls.”
The returning reality series are time period-winning “Survivor”, 10-time Emmy Award winner “The Amazing Race”, and the two-time Emmy Award-winning “Undercover Boss.”
In news, CBS will return “60 Minutes,” television’s No. 1 news program for more than four decades, and “48 Hours,” Saturday’s No. 1 non-sports program.
In addition to the new shows and 22 established series, NFL Thursday Night Football returns to CBS’s No. 1 primetime lineup. The Thursday broadcasts kick off on Sept. 17 with Denver at Kansas City, and will feature CBS’s lead broadcasters and production team, including Jim Nantz, Phil Simms and reporter Tracy Wolfson.
The 2015-2016 season will also feature a lineup of big events, including the premiere of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Tuesday, Sept. 8, and the two-hour series finale farewell for “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” on Sunday, Sept. 27, reuniting original cast members including William Petersen and Marg Helgenberger.
And CBS will feature the exclusive presentation of Super Bowl 50 on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016, when the event celebrates its golden anniversary at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. This will mark the Network's 19th Super Bowl telecast, the most by any broadcaster.
“This is a schedule well-positioned to build on the foundation of last year when we introduced five successful new series and increased our audience by 5 percent,” said Nina Tassler, Chairman, CBS Entertainment. “With ‘Thursday Night Football,’ many of the biggest hits on primetime television and huge events throughout the year, all of our exciting new shows have the best possible environment to succeed, and to help deliver another winning season for CBS.”