Due to COVID-19’s effect on television production, CBS has rearranged its early fall schedule to add several older shows to its prime-time lineup which were previously exclusive to other related networks. This includes the first season of Star Trek: Discovery, the fourth season of Justina Machado’s One Day at a Time, and the Spectrum original miniseries Manhunt: Deadly Games.
While CBS still plans to air its fall lineup, many of its regular scripted hour-long dramas have suffered big production delays from the pandemic. Under the new schedule, CBS’s nighttime programming in September and October will largely consist of shows that aren’t new, but are new to CBS, in order to buy time for the shows in its previous lineup to restart production. This includes NCIS (the show that will somehow outlive the human race), SEAL Team, Young Sheldon, MacGyver, and a reboot of The Equalizer starring Queen Latifah.
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Star Trek: Discovery will premiere on Thursday, September 24th at 10 PM EST, beginning with its first season. While this is technically a rerun, Discovery was previously exclusive to CBS’s streaming service All Access. Its pilot episode has run on CBS before, as an attempt to encourage fans to subscribe to All Access, so once Discovery hits its second episode on CBS, it will technically be the show’s broadcast premiere.
Manhunt: Deadly Games, a dramatic miniseries based on the events surrounding the 1996 Summer Olympics bombing, premiered its entire 10-episode run on Spectrum TV in February of 2020. Its run on CBS is scheduled to begin on September 21st at 10 PM EST. This is technically the second season of Manhunt, following an 8-episode run in 2017 on the Discovery Channel that was focused around the hunt for the Unabomber.
The fourth season of One Day at a Time is planned to take up a 9 PM EST slot on Monday nights, starting with two episodes running back-to-back on October 12th. The sitcom, starring Justina Machado, Isabella Gomez, and Rita Moreno, was cancelled after three seasons on Netflix, but moved to Viacom’s Pop cable network for a fourth season in March of 2020.
All three shows will be carrying the mail for CBS’s prime-time programming throughout September and October, with the rest of the broadcast schedule taken up by a whole mess of unscripted reality TV, such as Big Brother, Love Island, and The Amazing Race. 60 Minutes also makes its season 53 premiere on the evening of Sunday, September 20th, following that day’s NFL programming.
Star Trek: Discovery‘s third season begins airing on CBS All Access on October 15th.
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Source: Deadline