With two strikes pummeling Hollywood, CBS pivots to Yellowstone for fall schedule
The one-two punch of the writers and actors strikes means a television landscape littered with reruns and reality
Yellowstone is finally ready for primetime, and all it took was the complete and utter shutdown of Hollywood.
Taylor Sheridan’s hit ranch-based soap opera is coming to CBS for a two-hour block on Sunday nights, taking the Equalizer timeslot. The jump to the network is a long time coming, considering the show originated on the Paramount Network, streamed on Peacock, and survived the Paramount+ rebrand to become one of the most watched and least discussed shows on TV. All this before the show’s endless spate of spin-offs launched, its star quit, and Sheridan decided to call the whole thing off after this upcoming fifth season—worry not: a sequel series was already announced. The saga of Yellowstone’s broadcast history will, no doubt, be what the spin-off “2023” will revolve around.
The WGA and SAG-AFTRA
strikes have ground showbusiness to a halt. Unable to make a deal with
striking writers and performers because asking for a fair wage and a
lack of algorithmically-generated television shows is “disturbing” and “disruptive” behavior, studios and networks must now sell cable subscribers on a pretty dismal 2023–24 fall lineup. Networks like CBS and ABC have leveraged their reality and game shows that don’t fall under the jurisdiction of either guild to any fill holes—hence why something called FBI True, a true crime docuseries produced under the FBI branding for Paramount+, is coming to CBS this fall.
Yellowstone will be joined by other streaming shows, like the David Borenaz-led SEAL Team, which originated on CBS before jumping to Paramount+. Unfortunately for followers of the Goodiverse, SEAL Team airs Thursday nights instead of the upcoming Good Wife/Fight spin-off Elsbeth. CBS will supplement airing reruns of these shows by bringing the U.K. version of Ghosts stateside, where the network hopes it will attract fans of the American Ghosts.
Of course, all this will be bolstered by sports, game shows, and union-free reality shows like Big Brother, The Amazing Race, and Survivor. The fast-paced Bingo competition Lotería Loca will take the spot intended for The Neighborhood and Bob Hearts Abishola. Raid The Cage, a remake of an Israeli gameshow, will air Fridays instead of Fire Country. Finally, and most bafflingly, a reality adaptation of the Josh Duhamel comedy Buddy Games, a 2020 movie eaten alive by the pandemic that must’ve done serious numbers on streaming, will slot in for So Help Me Todd before Blue Bloods reruns gently rock viewers to sleep.
The full schedule is below, and boy, is it bleak:
Monday 8 p.m. EST: Lotería Loca 9 p.m. EST: NCIS 10 p.m. EST: “Paramount+ Original TBA” (Deadline has their money on Evil going here—though NCIS: Hawai’iwas initially intended to take that slot)
Tuesday 8 p.m. EST: Big Brother 9 p.m. EST: FBI True 10 p.m. EST: FBI
Wednesday 8 p.m. EST: Survivor 9:30 p.m. EST: The Amazing Race
Thursday (early fall) 8 p.m. EST: Big Brother 9 p.m. EST: Buddy Games 10 p.m. EST: The Challenge: USA
(Late fall) 8 p.m. EST: Young Sheldon 8:30 p.m. EST: Ghosts 9 p.m. EST: GHosts(U.K.) 10 p.m. EST: SEAL Team
Friday 8 p.m. EST: The Price Is Right At Night/Let’s Make A Deal Primetime 9 p.m. Raid The Cage 10 p.m. Blue Bloods Classics
Saturday 8 p.m. EST: Sports! 10 p.m. EST: 48 Hours
Sunday (Football singleheader) 7 p.m. EST: 60 Minutes 8 p.m. EST: Yellowstone 9 p.m. EST Yellowstone 10 p.m. EST: Big Brother
(Football doubleheader) 7 p.m. EST: Sports! 7:30 pm EST: 60 Minutes 9 p.m. EST: Yellowstone 10 p.m. EST: Big Brother