• by Paul Gough , May 14, 2003

Total-household viewership leader CBS is setting its sights on boosting ratings and attacking 18-49 leader NBC with a direct hit on The West Wing.

CBS announced its fall primetime schedule this morning, adding seven new shows (five dramas and two comedies), shifting around its Monday night comedy block and trying to make hay with a hourlong comedy block against the newly Aaron Sorkin-less NBC drama. It's also enlisting David E. Kelley, filmmaker Jerry Bruckheimer and stars from Mark Harmon to Charlie Sheen to Blythe Danner in new series.

Monday and Wednesday will see some of the biggest changes, although a new night of programming will be built around JAG on Friday and a newly arranged lineup on Saturdays. Sunday doesn't have the Ted Danson sitcom Becker, although that doesn't mean it's dead yet. In a presentation Wednesday morning before the network's upfront, CBS President Leslie Moonves said the network was in discussions about Becker.

"Sometimes Becker was on the schedule and sometimes it wasn't. And ultimately, you decide what you think is your best foot forward as you go ahead. And it ultimately was decided that the schedule was better with these two new comedies than with Becker and that happened. By the way, not an easy call. Probably the toughest call we had to make out of everything," said Moonves. One casualty for sure: My Big Fat Greek Life, which started with a lot of promise on Sundays but then faded.

Monday sees the loss of The King of Queens, which will move to 9 p.m. Wednesdays. It moves Yes, Dear and Still Standing to the 8 p.m. block, followed by top-two comedy Everybody Loves Raymond and a new sitcom, Two and a Half Men, starring Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer and Blythe Danner. CSI: Miami returns to the 10 p.m. slot.

On Wednesdays, The King of Queens is being moved to create what it calls a comedy block with a new sitcom, The Stones, which stars Robert Klein, Lindsay Sloane and Judith Light. Both The Stones and Two and a Half Men are family-relationships-gone-awry. Sheen and Cryer are brothers who have to cope when Cryer and his 10-year-old son move into Sheen's wealthy bachelor pad. The Stones are about two adult children who live in their childhood home with their parents, even though the parents are about to get a divorce.

"We think that will give us a great block. West Wing is going down, Bachelor is going down. It is the comedy alternative and with two strong comedies there we think we are going to do better at that time period than we have done," said Moonves.

Returning series are 12 series (Yes, Dear, Still Standing, Everybody Loves Raymond, CSI: Miami, The Guardian, Judging Amy, The King of Queens, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Without a Trace, JAG, Hack and The District), plus three news magazines (two editions of 60 Minutes and 48 Hours), a Sunday night movie and, of course, Survivor. Bruckheimer executive produces a new drama, Cold Case, which involves a female Philadelphia homicide detective who solves cases where the trail has gone cold. Kelley, whose last new series (girls club) failed on Fox after less than a month last year, will return to familiar region - northern New England - for The Brotherhood of Poland, N.H. This series, too, is about brothers, three (played by Randy Quaid, Brian Haley and John Carroll Lynch) who deal with professional and personal problems in their small town.

"It's a very unique show. Once again, it's our way to attack Law & Order, which is clearly a tough competitor," Moonves said.

JAG, a longtime performer for CBS, will move from Tuesdays to Friday nights in an effort to boost the fortunes of two new dramas, Joan of Arcadia and The Handler. Joan of Arcadia stars Joe Mantegna and Mary Steenburgen, focusing on the family of a police chief whose daughter thinks she's having an ongoing conversation with God. The Handler stars former Sopranos heavy Joe Pantoliano as an FBI agent whose job is to train agents to go undercover in Los Angeles.

JAG will be replaced at 8 p.m. Tuesdays by a spinoff with a nautical theme, Navy CIS. Harmon will play an agent of the Navy Criminal Investigative Service, a sort of FBI for the Navy and Marine Corps. It also stars Michael Weatherly and David McCallum.

The schedule proposed by CBS for fall 2003:

Monday, 8-8:30, Yes Dear; 8:30-9, Still Standing; 9-9:30, Everybody Loves Raymond; 9:30-10, Two and a Half Men; 10-11, CSI: Miami.

Tuesday: 8-9, Navy CIS; 9-10, The Guardian; 10-11, Judging Amy.

Wednesday: 8-9, 60 Minutes II; 9-9:30, The King of Queens; 9:30-10, The Stones; 10-11, The Brotherhood of Poland, N.H.

Thursday: 8-9, Survivor; 9-10, CSI; 10-11, Without a Trace.

Friday, 8-9, Joan of Arcadia; 9-10, JAG; 10-11, The Handler.

Saturday: 8-9, 48 Hours; 9-10, Hack; 10-11, The District.

Sunday: 7-8, 60 Minutes; 8-9, Cold Case; 9-11 p.m., CBS Sunday Movie.