CBS: Still On Top

I was wrong.

Actually, I was right the first time.

A year ago this time, I predicted that CBS's '60s drama "Vegas" would fail, given the failures of "Mad Men" clones on NBC and ABC, but this past December I was surprised to find the Dennis Quaid-Michael Chiklis show yielding solid ratings, which prompted me to include Dennis Quaid on my winners list for 2012.

Well, since I wrote that, "Vegas" began to decline in the ratings, and a schedule change accelerated that decline.  Result? It's been canceled.  It's one of four CBS shows that won't be returning when America's most-watched network starts the 2013-14 television season this fall.  Now it's official: Attempts to rip off "Mad Men" have been greater failures than "Mad Men" has been a success.

And winners don't stay winners for long these days.

Oh yeah, good news and bad news.  The bad news first - "Two And a Half Men" isn't one of those four canceled shows.  The good news is that the David Spade vehicle "Rules of Engagement" is, so that's hopefully the last we'll see of David Spade. (The other two are "CSI: NY," leaving, ironically, the Las Vegas-based original "CSI" the last remaining series from that franchise still on the air, and the cop drama "Golden Boy.")

Well, CBS hardly has to fret about a few failures and exhausted veteran shows, because the Big Eye is still number one, as noted, and the network can afford to take a few chances even while it stands pat overall. CBS appears to be doing just that, with five new shows set for fall and many veterans still returning. It's even moving a couple of dramas ("Hawaii Five-O," "Person of Interest") to new times as a show of confidence.

Among the new shows are "The Millers," about a successful and newly single newsman whose mom moves in with him, which sounds promising, and the Chuck Lorre-produced "Mom," starring Anna Faris as a newly sober single mom and Allison Janney as her own mother, which doesn't. Why not? Perhaps you weren't paying attention - Chuck Lorre, the evil genius behind "Two And a Half Men" and "Mike and Molly," is producing it!  Lorre has done more damage to television comedy than anyone else in recent years, and he still hasn't been forced to pay for it.

Well, he is paying a small penance.  "Mike and Molly" isn't on the fall schedule, having been picked up but being saved as a mid-season replacement if any of the new sitcoms bomb.  As well as a show about a newly single man with mommy issues and a newly sober women with mommy issues (talk about newly improved), there's an oldie in a third new CBS sitcom - Robin Williams, who stars as an unorthodox advertising executive in "The Crazy Ones."  Now, don't get me wrong.  I love Robin Williams.  The man is a genius.  "Mork and Mindy" proved that 35 years ago.  But it has been a long time since Williams has had a hit sitcom, and his last good movie came out sometime before the turn of the millennium.  Not to put too fine a point on it, but, except for his stand-up routine, Williams appears  to be a spent force.  At 62, he's not likely to be as lovably maniacal as Mork was.  Also, Sarah Michelle Gellar plays his daughter.  Somehow that doesn't sound right . . ..  The fourth new show is "We Are Men" which will air on Mondays at 8:30 p.m., an ensemble series about four single men played by Tony Shalhoub, Kal Penn, Chris Smith and Jerry O'Connell, following "How I Met Your Mother."

We'll find out soon enough if the artist formerly known as Buffy the Vampire Slayer has any comedic talent.  Ironically, speaking of "How I Met Your Mother," Gellar's old "Buffy" co-star Alyson Hannigan and her castmates are going out just as Gellar is coming in.  The popular series enters its ninth and final season this fall, having revealed that the future Mrs. Ted Mosby  is a cute electric-bass player but having also left us with plenty of unanswered questions regarding all the plot lines still unresolved.  It'll be bittersweet to see this series ride off into the sunset, but it is going out on top, and on its own terms.

Oh yeah, "Two And a Half Men" is rumored to be headed into its final season as well.  Question for CBS Corporation CEO Leslie Moonves: Is that a promise??      

The only new drama on CBS will be "Hostages," a drama about a female eye surgeon (Toni Collette) taken hostage just before she is due to operate on the President of the United States.

The full CBS 2013-14 lineup is here.