As May approaches, the TV schedule’s traditional revolving door spins a little faster. Among the legacy networks, CBS pretty much stands alone due to both its popularity and because it offers a traditional schedule of scripted series. ABC, Fox and NBC have islands of franchises in a vast ocean of reality series, musical competitions and game shows.
CBS announced last week that it was renewing “Elsbeth” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14) for a second season, after a strong showing in its first few outings.
The legal procedural stars Carrie Preston in the title role, as a quirky Chicago lawyer whose character originated in “The Good Wife,” a CBS series that migrated to streaming. In the tradition of “Columbo,” it puts the emphasis on pinning the blame on the weekly villain, who is already abundantly guilty to the household viewer.
And like Peter Falk’s signature character, Elsbeth Tascioni wears down her prey with a persistence that can be mistaken for incompetence. For both sleuths, being underestimated (and slightly annoying) is a kind of superpower. “Elsbeth” is the second “Columbo” homage of the year, after Peacock’s “Poker Face,” starring Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale.
The difference in the shows is based on setting. The Chicagoan Elsbeth makes a great show of being a dazzled tourist in New York. Circumstances have turned Lyonne’s Charlie into a fugitive, and her life on the lam leads her to work as an underpaid and undocumented employee in a series of unglamorous locations. She’s both everywhere and nowhere, and “Poker Face” makes the most of her dislocation.
CBS also announced the departure of “CSI: Vegas,” a reboot of that signature franchise that lasted three seasons. It also gave the axe to “So Help Me Todd” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-PG), another goofy legal procedural, starring Marcia Gay Harden as a buttoned-down attorney who finds herself helped out by her son, Todd (Skylar Astin), whose brilliance is not reflected in his sketchy resume.
This marks the second CBS procedural for Harden, who also starred on the gritty hospital drama “Code Black,” which ran for three seasons.
While five seasons of broadcast TV is nothing to sniff at, Harden’s casting raises the question about whether Oscar-winning actors really “belong” on television procedurals. Nobody wants to deny anybody a steady paycheck because they won an Oscar, but it’s never clear if these esteemed performers attract an audience. Did anybody tune in to “Todd” because they liked Harden in “Miller’s Crossing” or “Pollack”?
The path from the small screen to the Oscar stage tends to run in the opposite direction. Few suspected that the co-star of “Bosom Buddies” would become the Tom Hanks we now know.
No matter the current state of the medium, one thing remains certain. Television doesn’t need stars. It makes them.
Both “CSI: Vegas” and “Todd” outperformed their competition in the ratings. CBS is said to be making room for new series, including a “Matlock” reboot starring Kathy Bates. Let’s hope viewers don’t hold her “Misery” Oscar against her!
Speaking of renewals, Max streams the second season of the adult animated “Scooby Doo” spinoff “Velma,” featuring the voices of Mindy Kaling, Constance Wu, Sam Richardson and Glenn Howerton. The series received terrible reviews and confused many viewers, who considered it too raunchy for kids and too uncomfortably violent to be much “fun.”
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— Real estate can be murder on “Law & Order” (8 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
— Football fans and fantasists eagerly await Round 1 of the 2024 NFL Draft (8 p.m., ABC).
— Chief McGrath’s daughter reports an assault on “Law & Order: SVU” (9 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
— A witness faces dangerous intimidation on “Law & Order: Organized Crime” (10 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
A dentist (Alan Arkin) becomes embroiled in a Central America CIA scheme hatched by his daughter’s prospective father-in-law (Peter Falk) in the 1979 comedy “The In-Laws” (10 p.m., TCM, TV-MA). Serpentine, serpentine!
SERIES NOTES
Precocity on “Young Sheldon” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) … “Next Level Chef” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-14) … Pete feels empowered on “Ghosts” (8:30 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) … “Farmer Wants a Wife” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-PG).
LATE NIGHT
Carol Burnett, Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman appear on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (11:35 p.m., CBS, r) … Jimmy Fallon welcomes Millie Bobby Brown, Gordon Cormier and ScHoolboy Q. on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC, r) … Tim Robinson, Wendell Pierce and Lindsay Mendez visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC, r) … Taylor Tomlinson hosts “After Midnight” (12:35 a.m., CBS).
