CBS Fall Schedule Preview

Hi,
I'm going to start every day's entry with a review of yesterday's pick to watch. Yesterday's recommendation, 30 Days, is the brain-child of Supersize Me's Morgan Spurlock. On Tuesday's episode, Morgan went to live on the Navajo Reservation for one month. It was a fascinating, and sometimes disturbing, look into the life of the modern American Indian on "the rez." American Indian communities find themselves destroyed by poverty, alcoholism, and crime. Many families find themselves in a similar situation to many Mexican families, where the head of the household leaves the reservation to find work so he can send money back to his family. It was heartbreaking to hear the grandmother of the family Morgan was staying with talk about how she felt disconnected from her grandchildren because they did not speak Navajo. The economic state of the rez and the outside influence of the western world are slowly killing their culture. It was certainly an eye-opener. Perhaps there is hope yet for the Navajo Nation. They are planning the opening of a casino in 2009, which will hopefully give an economic boost to the rez and provide lots of employment, and their new school system is designed to ingrain the Navajo culture into their youth, including the speaking of both Navajo and English in the classroom. Morgan Spurlock has given us another rare look into a life we would never experience on our own. Anyone who missed this should check their local listings for reruns. 30 Days is new every Tuesday at 10/9c this summer on the FX network.

All of the big networks have put out their tentative fall schedules, and I plan on reviewing all of them in the next couple weeks. Today, the 2008 CBS Fall Schedule.

The CBS Monday line-up is my favorite night of primetime television, so I will spend the most time talking about this night of the week.
8:00/7:00c The Big Bang Theory
8:30/7:30c How I Met Your Mother
9:00/8:00c Two and a Half Men
9:30/8:30c Worst Week - New show
10/9:00c CSI: Miami

The Monday line-up is coming back with all-new episodes starting Mon. Sept. 22nd.
The Big Bang Theory is coming back for a second season after an excellent freshman year run. This is the quirky comedy about two UCLA research nerds who live across the hall from a blond bombshell, played by Kaley Cuoco (the daughter from 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter).
How I Met Your Mother is my favorite show on TV right now. It is the chronicle of Ted Mosby's life in the present day told through the eyes of an older Ted looking back on his life. The star-studded supporting cast includes Niel Patrick Harris, Alyson Hannigan, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall's Jason Segel.
Two and a Half Men returns for its 6th season. It is America's most watched sitcom.
Worst Week is a new show about a guy who has gotten engaged to his girlfriend after getting her pregnant, and now has to go to meet her family and tell them the news. Time will tell whether this will be successful, but it sure has a cushy timeslot.
CSI: Miami comes back for a 7th season. David Caruso's Horatio Caine makes this version just as good as the original.

CBS Tuesday Fall Line-up returns all-new Sept. 23
8:00/7:00c NCIS
9:00/8:00c The Mentalist - New Show
10/9:00c Without a Trace - New Time

NCIS returns for a 6th season. It is the Navy's spin on CSI.
The Mentalist is a new drama about a California detective whose family was killed by a serial murderer
Without a Trace the drama about the FBI's missing persons unit, returns for a 7th season at a new time.

CBS Wednesday Fall Line-up returns Sept. 24
8:00/7:00c The New Adventures of Old Christine
8:30/7:30c Project Gary - New Show
9:00/8:00c Criminal Minds
10/9:00c CSI: NY

The New Adventures of Old Christine, Julia Louis-Dreyfus's show comes back for a fourth season.
Jay Mohr returns to television in the new comedy Project Gary. Mohr plays Gary, a recently divorced father trying to deal with his new life situation.
Criminal Minds and CSI: NY return for their 4th and 5th seasons, respectively.

CBS Thursday Fall Line-up returns with all-new episodes Oct. 9th
8:00/7:00c Survivor (premieres Sept. 17th)
9:00/8:00c CSI
10/9:00c Eleventh Hour - New Show

Survivor returns for an incredible 17th installment when they go to the mysterious country of Gabon.
CSI continues its run for a 9th season. This will be the first full season without Jorja Fox (Sarah).
Eleventh Hour is a new drama about an FBI agent who tries to solve high-tech cases before the time runs out.

CBS Friday Fall Line-up returns with all-new episodes Oct. 3rd
8:00/7:00c Ghost Whisperer
9:00/8:00c The Ex List
10/9:00c Numb3rs

Jennifer Love Hewitt returns as the Ghost Whisperer for a 4th season.
The Ex List is the new show about a woman who goes searching for all of her ex-boyfriends after a psychic tells her that someone she has already dated is her soulmate.
The mathematical crime drama Numb3rs returns for a 5th season.

CBS Sunday Line-up returns Sept. 28
After Football: 60 Minutes
8:00/7:00c The Amazing Race
9:00/8:00c Cold Case
10/9:00c The Unit

The Amazing Race is the Emmy-winning reality competition show, and comes back this fall for a 13th race around the world.
A 6th season of solving decades-old cases comes back this fall on Cold Case.
The Unit is the drama about an anti terrorist unit, and returns for its 4th season.

So there is your preview for this fall's CBS primetime schedule. It is worth mentioning that the critically acclaimed Moonlight was a late cancellation, and will not appear in the fall line-up. Fans of the show are mounting an effort to have the show renewed, but the outlook is bleak. Also, new episodes of the comedy Rules of Engagement are set to come back in January 2009.

Tonight's pick to watch:
Nova: Science Now 10:00/9:00c on PBS.
I know this may be some of the nerd in me coming out with this selection, but Nova: Science Now is really a different generation of science show. It's the perfect science show for today's low attention span America. Host and Astrophysicist Niel deGrasse Tyson brings you five ten-minute science stories every week. Tonight's show investigates early primates, looks into the most recent Hubble Telescope repairs, and more.