What’s Out
Carnage again at CBS with seven cancellations, largely amongst stuff I’ve never seen. Numb3rs, Cold Case, Ghost Whisperer, Gary Unmarried and The New Adventures of Old Christine have all been around for a few years, but never really made much of an impact on my psyche. Miami Medical and Accidentally on Purpose were new this year, neither impressed me with their pilots and neither apparently made any impact on the ratings.

What’s Back
CBS: All CSI, All the time! Lead by the original CSI (returning for season 11) are a flotilla of procedurals – CSI:NY, CSI:Miami, NCIS, NCIS: LA, Criminal Minds, The Mentalistand Medium. The Good Wife is one of the biggest critical successes amongst the 2009-10 class so is also renewed unsurprisingly. Half-hour comedies are represented by How I Met Your Monther, Rules of Engagement, Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory.

What’s New

• Hawaii Five-O: The ‘classic’ cop show reimagined. It’s got an impressive cast, gorgeous locations and the ever popular combination of girls and guns. From the clips though it also looks like it might have a willingness to poke fun at itself and the spark that is missing from many other trailers out there.
• Blue Bloods: Tom Selleck and his moustache are back. The writers of the Sopranos take on the other side of the law with a family of New York law enforcers, an interesting idea but the trailer didn’t have the aforementioned spark, it felt like it was trying too hard.
• Defenders: Yet another show about lawyers. Jim Belushi and Jerry O’Connell are great names, and it might be an interesting twist to have budget lawyers in crappy suits rather than the ultra polished ones that tend to be on screen and not hugely sympathetic. If the chemistry is all they play it up to be, this might be a lot of fun.
• Mike & Molly: A couple meat at Overeaters Anonymous and fall in love. Fat jokes ensue. Melissa McCarthy and the world in general deserve better.
• $#*! My Dad Says: This one’s going to be a headline maker. For a start it’s based on a twitter feed. For a second, no one quite knows what to do with the show’s name when you can’t say ‘shit’ on network TV. For a third it’s got possibly the most perfect piece of casting there is, with William Shatner playing the cantankerous eponymous Dad. I’ll admit, I follow the twitter account and I laughed at the trailer.
• Criminal Minds Spinoff: I’ve made my thoughts on this one pretty clear. It’s not coming in until mid-season so maybe they’ll find someone to fill the charisma hole and convince me this is more than a completely shameless lack of creativity, but I’m not holding my breath.

Links: Watch with Kristin, TV Squad, The TV Addict