First Impulse: What the networks are doing this fall: CBS

CBS is kind of like the network of shows I might watch if I had more time, shows like "The Good Wife" and "Blue Blood" and--well, that's it, I think, but that's something. As for the rest of it, I made an informal arrangement a while back. CBS doesn't bother me, and I don't bother it. So while I remain puzzled that shows like "NCIS" can be so heavily watched when I myself don't know anyone who watches them, eh, live and let live, right?

The only CBS show I watched weekly, or at all, really, this year was "How I Met Your Mother," whose creators promised a big bounceback year and then delivered an uneven season filled with disappointments and some weak storylines. I'll watch in the flal, too, though, especially since it's a "me and the wife" program.

The returning stuff looks like what it always looks like. The new stuff kind of looks like what the returning stuff always looks like, too. I don't see any remakes on the horizon. What, no "Streets of San Francisco" reboot? I'll check out "2 Broke Girls" because it's on after "HIMYM" and because it stars Kat Dennings, but nothing else looks exciting.

I am intrigued by CBS' bold decision to put new scripted programming on Saturday nights. Unfortunately, it's only one half-hour show, and it's "Rules of Engagement." Besides inspiring speculation about whether new shows can work on Saturdays, it will quash the annual moment a month or two into the TV season when we all slap our heads and go, "Midseason shows, hmm...Wait, 'Rules of Engagement' is coming back?"

I wish something WOULD work on Saturdays. In this age of DVRs, social lives or not, there is no excuse for the networks to bail on an entire day of the week when scheduling. Well, except for the fact that they can barely program the other 6 with quality.

There's one show conspicuous by its absence in this post, and it undoubtedly will be the most discussed series on the network when it comes back in the fall. But I was never into it, anyway, and I don't feel like digging into its whole saga now, so...