• by Wayne Friedman , January 12, 2015

PASADENA, CALIF — CBS sits in a strong second-place position heading into the second half of the year in prime time among key viewers, continuing its long reign as the No. 1 broadcast network in overall viewers. Nina Tassler offered up a few details regarding what the new Stephen Colbert will look like. She says the former Comedy Central personality is still developing the show, which debuts Sept. 8

But for Nina Tassler, chairman of CBS Entertainment -- speaking at the Television Critics Association meeting in Pasadena, Calif -- the initial focus was on late night. The network announced that Stephen Colbert's reign as the “Late Show” host will start Sept. 8.

Following David Letterman’s exit May 20 at the end of the current season, Tassler says the network will run encores of the network’s prime-time series in the summer during the 11:30 p.m. time period.

Tassler offered up few details as to what the new Colbert will look like, saying that the now former Comedy Central personality is still developing the show.

Already for next year, CBS has renewed three of its freshman shows: “NCIS: New Orleans,” “Madam Secretary” and “Scorpion.” In heavy development, among new offerings for CBS, will be a sci-fi effort “Supergirl,” a departure for the network, which has tended to focus on crime procedural or government-tinged dramas.

CBS continues to increase its premium content in prime-time year-round, says Tassler: “80% of our season is now original programming, up from 71% from last year.”

Through January 4, CBS averaged a Nielsen 2.4 rating among 18-49 viewers when looking at live-plus-seven days of time-shifted viewing — second place next to NBC’s 2.8.

As it has for many years, CBS still dominates in total average viewers — with 11.4 million viewers to second-place NBC’s 9.5 million. CBS touts seven of the top ten series, and 12 or the top 20 in total viewers.