Kathryn Morris UK

We’ve done a little more digging on the chances of the new CBS pilot starring Kathryn and Jason Isaacs, Surgeon General from being picked up to series for the CBS TV 2013-14 season in the US.

The CBS network as ordered 11 drama pilots.  Of those near-dozen only a few will be selected to go beyond the pilot stage.   We’re going to completely ignore the comedies as they are very unlikely to have any bearing on the scheduling of dramas, they tend to run in separate and fairly fixed blocks during the week.

Network stalwart NCIS (the original) has already been renewed.  The Los Angeles branch is practically a certainty for renewal.  Blue Bloods, Criminal Minds, CSI (the original), new US take on the Sherlock Holmes franchise with an usually attractive Dr Watson: Elementary, and Hawaii Five-O are also considered safe bets for getting a further season.

Made In Jersey didn’t even make it into the new year, canned after just 8 episodes aired.  It started in an often unfancied Friday night slot, got quickly shuffled to Saturday and was then run out in two double episodes over the Xmas holiday period.  The star, Janet Montgomery, has already moved onto a pilot for a new show, Gothica, which we’ve talked about recently because Tracie Thoms is also in it.

Two other new shows, Vegas and Golden Boy (which John Finn has had a part in), are both considered dead and won’t be ‘doing a zombie’ and coming back.  CSI: New York, often the most interesting of all the CSIs (is there a collective noun for CSIs? A Zuiker? A Bruckheimer?), is on shakey ground.  The most recent season was short at only 18 episodes and has finished airing already.  Actor Hill Harper (Dr Sheldon Cooper Hawkes) has already signed up for a role in USA TV network’s Covert Affairs and won’t be returned to CSI: NY even if the show gets a 10th season.  It getting a 9th was a bit of surprise.  Can it pull it off again?

This is where it gets interesting.  Two Sunday night shows:  The Mentalist and The Good Wife, are far from safe.  Either one, or both, could be cancelled.  We already know how this feels as Cold Case spent time in both the 9-10pm and 10-11pm slots that these show occupy.  We would guess that if one survives it will be put in the 10-11pm slot, freeing up 9-10pm for something new…  Could Kathryn return to Sunday night TV on CBS?

On the way things stand at present that gives us 4 or 5 drama slots free in the schedules for the 2013-14 season and 11 shows vying for them.

So, what are these 10 dramas that Surgeon General is up against?

• The Advocates – Mandy Moore and Ben McKenzie as a lawyer and ex-con righting wrongs.
• Anatomy Of Violence – Skeet Ulrich and Amber Tamblyn as a psychologist and young policewoman righting wrongs
• Backstrom – Rainn Wilson and Dennis Haysbert.  Based on a series of Swedish books about a detective.
• Beverly Hills Cop –  Yes, that BHC, but this time it’s ‘son of’ with Brandon T. Jackson and Kevin Pollack.
• Hostages – Toni Collette and Dylan McDermott as a surgeon taken hostage with her family and an FBI agent caught up in a conspiracy.
• Intelligence – Josh Holloway and Marg Helgenberger as members of the US Cyber Command fight wrong doings
• The Ordained – Son of a political family (think the Kennedys) leaves the priesthood to become a lawyer to prevent a wrong doing.
• NCIS: Red – Another NCIS spin-off, this time from NCIS:LA.  John Corbett and Kim Raver lead a travelling band of agents
• Reckless – Cam Gigandet and Anna Wood as South Carolinian lawyers fighting a police sex scandal as well as their own.
• Second Sight – Jason Lee and Christina Cole.  A man develops hallucinations that help right wrongs.

NCIS: Red is a shoe-in for one of the slots, especially if last Tuesday’s airing of the cross-over with NCIS:LA ‘back-door pilot’ went well.  Tuesday night from 8pm to 11pm on CBS could be all NCIS with all 3 flavours running back-to-back.

What would be your choices for the 4 or 5 new shows on CBS this autumn?

We’ll be keeping on eye on how this plays out in the next two months, as we await the official announcements.

Credit to TV By The Numbers, The Hollywood Reporter and TV Line for the information.