CBS President and CEO George Cheeks told TheWrap on Wednesday that even if NBC plans to dump its 10 p.m. hour shows, CBS does not intend to follow suit.
“We are committed to 10 p.m. and continuing our ratings success in that time period,” Cheeks said in a statement. Some of the network’s biggest hits air at 10, including procedural dramas “Blue Bloods,” “FBI: Most Wanted,” and “NCIS: Hawai’i,” as well as late night staple “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”
His comments come after Hearst TV chief Jordan Wertlieb predicted that ABC and CBS would follow suit if NBC decides to hand its 10 p.m. slot over to its local affiliates. Wertlieb was part of Wednesday’s panel at NAB Show New York where the potential game-changing move was discussed.
Panelists, including Valari Staab, an NBCUniversal Local chairman, Chris Ripley, president-CEO of Sinclair Broadcast Group, were in favor of trimming the third primetime hour. Staab stated that handing the slot to affiliates would be “a huge opportunity for us across the board.”
If NBC does axe its 10 p.m. programming, that would leave “Law & Order” spinoff “Organized Crime,” which caps Thursday’s third hour of the Dick Wolf franchise, up in the air.
CBS’s own Dick Wolf block, “FBI,” “FBI: Most Wanted,” and “FBI: International,” continues to deliver top ratings for the network on Tuesdays. Last week‘s total average viewership of “Most Wanted” was up, according to Nielsen’s live plus same-day figures.
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Wrap