CBS to strip 'Falcone'
Different skedding launches Mafia drama
Show, based on the real-life FBI agent who inspired the pic "Donnie Brasco," will bow as a two-hour movie April 4 from 9-11 p.m. -- one night after CBS airs the NCAA basketball championship game. "Falcone" will then run nightly at 10 p.m. from April 5-12, save for Sunday, April 9.
The strip skedding could help turn the launch of "Falcone" into an event rather than just another midseason series. Eye sources are a bit more cautious, saying the goal is simply to shake loose some of the normal conventions of network scheduling.
"The rules are changing," one network source said. "This is a way to call a little attention to a midseason show. ... We're trying something different."
"Falcone" will also have the benefit of a focused promo campaign that will crest the night before its launch with spots in the NCAA basketball championship, airing April 3. Word of mouth on "Falcone" could also help the show's ratings build on a nightly basis.
In an added bonus for CBS programmers, the net will get a good idea of how the show performs in many different timeslots. If the skein proves a success, it would likely return in the fall as a weekly series rather than as a strip.
Multinight broadcasts like the one CBS is attempting with "Falcone" were once the exclusive domain of syndication, where shows typically run five times per week.
But the success ABC has had with "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" -- which premiered last August as a two-week strip and now airs three times a week -- has opened the door to more radical forms of skedding.
"Falcone," from Columbia TriStar Prods., in association with CBS Prods., stars Jason Gedrick as Joe Pistone, an FBI agent who leads a double life as a undercover young mobster and a regular family man. Pistone's story served as the inspiration for "Donnie Brasco."
Robert Singer, Mark Johnson, John Lee Hancock, Bobby Moresco and Ken Solarz are exec producers of "Falcone." Pistone is an associate producer.
