CBS' fall lineup looks familiar but has some risky moves

Of all the major networks, CBS tends to be the one that takes an "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach to its fall schedule. But its 2011-12 schedule, announced Wednesday, includes several risky moves for existing shows.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is the move of The Good Wife from Tuesdays to Sundays, a night that has been problematic for CBS, especially in the fall, when afternoon football tends to run long and delay the entire prime-time schedule.

Also moving is the comedy Rules of Engagement, from Thursday to Saturday, a night that was once home to such classics as All in the Family and The Mary Tyler Moore Show but in recent years has become a dumping ground for repeats and lame-duck shows. This all but ensures that the show's upcoming sixth season will be the last.

Another switch is the relocation of CSI from its longtime Thursday home to Wednesday nights. The crime drama, which will begin its 12th season in the fall, is a bit long in the tooth but is also the show most likely to survive such a switch.

Otherwise, CBS is, as usual, launching fewer new shows than other networks, with five new fall series and one midseason replacement. The schedule, with new shows in bold (all air locally on KTVT/Channel 11):

Monday

7 p.m.: How I Met Your Mother

7:30 p.m.: 2 Broke Girls: In this comedy, Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs play struggling waitresses -- one street-wise, one from a rich background but having a run of bad luck -- working to raise money to start a cupcake bakery in this series from Sex and the City's Michael Patrick King and Chelsea Lately's Whitney Cummings.

8 p.m.: Two and a Half Men

8:30 p.m.: Mike & Molly

9 p.m.: Hawaii Five-0

Tuesday

7 p.m.: NCIS

8 p.m.: NCIS: Los Angeles

9 p.m.: Unforgettable: In this procedural-with-a-twist, Without a Trace's Poppy Montgomery plays a former police detective with a flawless memory, except for one blind spot: the unsolved murder of her sister, which leads her to rejoin her ex-partner/lover (Dylan Walsh) in a homicide unit.

Wednesday

7 p.m.: Survivor: South Pacific

8 p.m.: Criminal Minds

9 p.m.: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (new night and time)

Thursday

7 p.m.: The Big Bang Theory

7:30 p.m.: How to be a Gentleman: David Hornsby and Kevin Dillon star in this comedy about "the unlikely friendship between a traditional, refined writer and an unrefined personal trainer." A great supporting cast -- Dave Foley, Nancy Lenehan, Mary Lynn Rajskub -- could make this work, but Mad Love showed that a great cast does not necessarily mean a great show.

8 p.m.: Person of Interest: Jim Caviezel plays a presumed-dead CIA agent who teams with a mysterious billionaire (Lost's Michael Emerson, well-cast) to mete out their own brand of vigilante justice. J.J. Abrams is an executive producer, so there's reason to be optimistic.

9 p.m.: The Mentalist

Friday

7 p.m.: A Gifted Man: This has been a problem time slot for CBS ever since Ghost Whisperer went away, so why not go back to a variation on what worked? Patrick Wilson plays a surgeon who begins getting messages from his dead wife (Jennifer Ehle of the 1995 Pride & Prejudice miniseries). No Ordinary Family's Julie Benz plays his sister, and Margo Martindale, who gave the TV performance of the spring in FX's Justified, plays his assistant.

8 p.m.: CSI: NY

9 p.m.: Blue Bloods

Saturday

7 p.m.: Rules of Engagement (new night and time)

7:30 p.m.: "Comedytime Saturday," a way of saying "reruns" that's more awkward than "Crimetime Saturday."

8 p.m.: "Crimetime Saturday"

9 p.m.: 48 Hours Mystery

Sunday

6 p.m.: 60 Minutes

7 p.m.: The Amazing Race

8 p.m.: The Good Wife (new night and time)

9 p.m.: CSI: Miami

Undercover Boss will return at midseason, which will also bring The 2-2, yet another drama about rookie cops, except this one has Robert De Niro as an executive producer.

Gone are Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, Mad Love, The Defenders and $#*! My Dad Says.

Robert Philpot, 817-390-7872