CBS on the right laugh track

Top-rated comedy network taking risks

By MICHAEL SCHNEIDER

(top)'Two and a Half Men' (bottom) 'Worst Week'

Don't tell CBS executives that the sitcom is extinct.

While rival nets struggle to fill their comedy holes, it's the older-skewing Eye that will expand to a second night of yuks this fall -- becoming the only network to boast two live-action comedy blocks.

The web is also diversifying the kinds of laffers it airs, scheduling the single-camera "Worst Week" on Monday nights, where multicam sitcoms have traditionally ruled.

"I've read the stories about comedy, how it's supposedly dead," CBS Entertainment prexy Nina Tassler says. "That's not our story. For us, it's been a consistent build over the past couple of years post-'Everybody Loves Raymond.' "

As "Raymond" and "The King of Queens" faded away, CBS managed to fill the void with new staples like "Two and a Half Men," "How I Met Your Mother," "The New Adventures of Old Christine," "Rules of Engagement" and, most recently, "The Big Bang Theory."

Tassler and CBS comedy topper Wendi Trilling pride themselves on their batting average. They may pick up only one or two new comedies a year, but most of those shows have managed to survive beyond their frosh season.

And now, the Eye has amassed five of the 10 most popular comedies on television among adults under 50.

"They don't have a lot of misses," says Endeavor partner Rick Rosen, who helped bring "Worst Week" to CBS. "They're not afraid to make shows they think are good. With 'Worst Week,' it now appears that they're certainly willing to take chances creatively. I give them credit for scooping up a show that otherwise would have ended up at NBC."

CBS has traditionally played its comedies mainstream -- multicamera, studio audience or laugh track, filmed on tape -- and it has paid off.

"My experience is that they have a very healthy attitude at CBS," "Two and a Half Men" exec producer Chuck Lorre says. "It's summed up by, 'If it ain't broke, don't mess with it."

As a result, while NBC may earn more acclaim with shows like "30 Rock" and "The Office," the Eye lands more total viewers -- as well as adults 18-49 -- with shows like "Two and a Half Men" that are still more accessible to middle America viewers. "Men" was the top-rated laffer in primetime for the third straight year, inheriting the slot previously occupied by "Raymond." That spills into syndication too, where "Two and a Half Men" dominates offnet laffers.

Fellow Monday entries "Rules of Engagement," "Old Christine," "Big Bang Theory" and "How I Met Your Mother" also rank among TV's top 10 laffers in the key 18-49 demo.

CBS' Monday night comedies actually improved in viewership this spring vs. pre-writers strike levels last fall. That's a feat, given the soft return performance from most shows and the overall downward trend for primetime laffers.

The form had already lost ground to other genres -- particularly reality -- when "Raymond," "King of Queens" and NBC staples "Friends," "Will & Grace" and "Frasier" all left the air within a few years. That left the networks with the difficult task of identifying the next generation of hits.

NBC wound up replacing its critical Thursday 9 p.m. slot with the short-term reality fix "The Apprentice" -- and is still recovering from that comedy downsize, even though it will be back to two hours on the night this fall. ABC and Fox have had an even rougher go of it: The Alphabet returns this fall with just one half-hour comedy (last season's solid newcomer "Samantha Who") but promises more yuks at midseason, while Fox also has lined up just one returning half-hour series that's not animated.

CBS, on the other hand, has perhaps benefited from its slightly older aud, which is still hungry for more traditional laughs. The Eye has also shown a willingness to do business with outside studios, thus tapping into a wider talent pool. Warner Bros. TV, 20th Century Fox TV, Sony Pictures TV, ABC Studios and Universal Media Studios all produce or co-produce laffers for the net.

Eye execs say they feel they've finally earned the right to take a few more chances. Its Monday laffer lineup clicking, CBS looked to evolve beyond what had been a sked heavy with like-minded half-hours (namely, schlubby guys and their frustrated, attractive wives).

That transition took a giant leap forward with "How I Met Your Mother," which wasn't like the CBS comedies that surrounded it. Critics fell for the show, while the Eye brought in some younger viewers.

But that's not to say it's been an easy go for the show or for CBS. The net has also seemed frustrated with "Mother's" ratings, keeping its producers guessing year after year as to whether the laffer has earned a pickup. Some wonder whether "Mother" -- which closed the season as the top-rated 8:30 scripted program on any net -- would be a smash hit on another network, particularly NBC.

"They definitely give us a lot of leeway to do the stuff we want to do," says "Mother" exec producer Carter Bays, who's content being a part of the block. "All the shows on Monday night are really funny. The common denominator is good construction, good craftsmanship. When we launched, they gave us the greatest hammock you could be in -- between 'King of Queens' and 'Two and a Half Men.' It was a great place to nurture a comedy."

The network hit bumpy patches early in the life of "The Big Bang Theory" -- scrapping the original pilot and pushing development a year. That paid off the following cycle, when Lorre and crew delivered another hit for CBS.

"I'd never gotten a do-over before," Lorre says. "But Nina Tassler said, 'We believe in it and we want you to try it again,' and they gave us a shot to do (another) pilot. It benefited from their belief in the show's premise, and they certainly gave us a chance to do it right."

CBS also seemed unsure as to what to do with "Old Christine," which performed well but seemed out of place with the Eye's guy-friendly Monday block. After nearly leaving "Christine" for dead, the net recently reversed course and made the show the centerpiece of its new Wednesday strategy, pairing it with newbie "Project Gary" (both deal with recently divorced parents).

CBS in the coming season is ready to unveil its biggest comedy departure yet: "Worst Week." The show scored some of the best reactions at the network upfront presentations last month, yet it doesn't look like any other comedy on CBS' air.

"Worst Week" is a full-on single camera laffer -- a form CBS has been busy developing, but has nonetheless avoided in recent years. And while thematically its domestic setting and in-law issues fit right in with other Eye comedies, its broader scope and different pacing may prove discomfiting to some of the traditional laffer audience.

"It was definitely time to take a chance," Tassler says. "That show, from the script to the casting to the filming, set the comedy bar very high, and it delivered. Clearly we know it's a different look for us, but when you look at the elements of the show, there are plenty of things that are eminently relatable to our audience."