CBS nukes "Jericho" for lookalike show with cheaper talent

I am sorry to report that CBS is not in Kansas anymore.

In announcing its fall schedule to advertisers Wednesday, television’s most-watched network left off “Jericho,” its thriller about nuclear apocalypse in a fictional town somewhere between Kansas City and Denver.

Kelly Kahl, the CBS scheduler known for his bold moves — he was the guy who wanted “CSI” moved to Thursday nights — told reporters in New York that “Jericho,” which starred Skeet Ulrich, had “lost a lot of steam” and “wasn’t performing.”

It was a brutal year for serial dramas, the perhaps inevitable result of too many of them being added to network schedules at once. With the sacking of “Jericho,” ABC’s “Ugly Betty” and NBC’s “Heroes” are the only genre shows still around a year after being announced at last year’s upfronts.

CBS thought it had constructed a winning strategy for “Jericho.” To cover the nearly three-month gap when the show was off the air, the network’s news division created companion programming that streamed at the CBS website.

What the network brass could not anticipate was viewer attrition for all serial dramas. Even established hits like “Heroes” and “Lost” came back after long vacations to noticeably lower ratings. But clearly the producers knew the end was nigh. In the season-ending episode of “Jericho,” they killed off one of the most appealing characters on the show, the longtime mayor played by Gerald McRaney. Locked in a fratricidal war with a neighboring town, and with who-knows-what coming at them from across the stricken continent, the citizens of Jericho, Kansas, faced a whole host of challenges ahead.

Turns out that surviving nuclear holocaust was easy compared with surviving a 7 p.m. Wednesday time slot on CBS.

The network rolled out five new shows at its Wednesday morning press conference in New York, including a reality show, “Kid Nation,” taking “Jericho’s” place on the schedule. “Kid Nation,” a sort of “Lord of the Flies” on the Ponderosa, sounds a lot like what "Jericho" might be if you fired all the actors. Forty kids are placed in an abandoned ghost town in New Mexico and given 40 days to bring it back to life — shops, government, housing arrangements — all by themselves. It’s been years since anything worked for CBS in this time period, so why not?

A new comedy, “The Big Bang Theory,” takes the place of “The Class” on its Monday-night lineup. It’s from Chuck Lorre, whose track record is excellent (“Two and a Half Men” and “Dharma & Greg). Jimmy Smits will star as a mobster in “Cane,” which will air Tuesday nights at 9, the same time period in which CBS thought America would love to watch Ray Liotta as a violent burglar last season. “Smith” was gone by Christmas.

“Close to Home” was also cancelled, which was less of a surprise than “Jericho’s” vanishing act. Its place was taken by “Moonlight,” which appears to be an effort to resuscitate an odd subgenre: the vampire detective series. Alex O’Loughlin will play a cop who’s been undead since his bride bit him 60 years ago. It’s clearly meant as a companion piece to “Ghost Whisperer.”

And the new lead-out to “60 Minutes” this fall will be “Viva Laughlin,” a mystery show set in a Nevada casino town. According to CBS, it will use “upbeat contemporary songs to accentuate the drama and humor and advance the story,” much like the show it’s based on, the BBC’s Peabody-winning musical drama “Viva Blackpool.”

“New Christine” and “The Amazing Race” will return at midseason, as will a new show, “Swingtown,” which is not a musical featuring the tunes of Brian Setzer or Bob Wills but a drama about open marriages in the 1970s.