• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, August 15, 2023

The whereabouts of CBS’s new “Matlock” is not a mystery.

The new show starring Kathy Bates (pictured above) and “inspired” by the old Andy Griffith series, is just one of the new scripted series the network was eager to introduce this fall, until the writers and actors strikes derailed the summer TV production season.

In the aftermath of the walkouts, CBS, like its fellow networks, has had to scrap the schedule announced last May and replace it with a whole new one announced last month.

Now, the CBS fall schedule will consist of unscripted shows, episodes of scripted series repurposed from the co-owned streaming service Paramount+, and at least one series imported from the U.K.

This particular stop-gap measure might be the most innovative of all. In the absence of new episodes of the comedy “Ghosts” -- one of its top shows -- the network is importing the U.K. version of the show, also called “Ghosts,” on which the American “Ghosts” is based.

Under the plan announced in a press release July 17, two back-to-back episodes of the U.K. “Ghosts” will be slotted at 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Eastern on Thursday nights this fall, preceded by a rerun episode of the American “Ghosts.”

The American “Ghosts” is just one of several CBS scripted shows not producing new episodes this summer whose reruns will be used to plug gaps on the schedule.

Others are “NCIS,” “FBI” and “Young Sheldon” (still leading off the Thursday lineup). 

On Fridays, reruns of “Blue Bloods” are being positioned as “Blue Bloods Classics.” That innovation -- classifying some episodes of “Blue Bloods” as “classics” -- is second only to the plan to bring the U.K. “Ghosts” to American television.

The lead item on the July 17 press release was the repurposing of “Yellowstone” from Paramount+ for the CBS strike schedule.

“Yellowstone,” starring Kevin Costner as the patriarch of a contentious Montana ranching family, is the highest-profile series on Paramount+.

The show’s repurposing for CBS is billed in the network’s press release as the show’s “broadcast premiere.”

Episodes of two other Paramount+ shows are also coming to CBS -- the docuseries “FBI True” and the action drama “SEAL Team,” which was once on CBS anyway.

Other shows filling the gap for CBS this fall and beyond, depending on how long the strikes drag on, include game shows -- like an ABC summer schedule.

These are new episodes of “The Price Is Right At Night” and “Let’s Make A Deal Primetime,” plus new ones -- “Buddy Games,” “Lotería Loca” and “Raid the Cage.”

“Lotería Loca” will retain its Spanish name on English-speaking CBS, but for the record, it means “Crazy Lottery.” CBS says it is based on a Spanish lottery. 

“Raid the Cage” has something to do with contestants entering some sort of cage to seize merchandise and then run out with it. “Get in. Get out. Get rich!” says a description from CBS. 

“Survivor,” “The Amazing Race” and “Big Brother” are not actor- or writer-dependent, so they will all turn up in the fall. So will “60 Minutes” and “48 Hours.”

In its May press release, CBS announced a very different fall scenario -- a normal one with returning scripted shows and three new ones.

The network’s July press release on the new, strike-emergency schedule was focused completely on the revised schedule, with no mention of the new scripted shows announced in May -- not even “Matlock.”