Yahoo News CBS Plans Comedy Pilots & Eyes Cooking Shows As Boss Amy Reisenbach Ignores Corporate Noise
CBS got in early with its 2024-25 schedule and has been stocking up on new shows such as NCIS: Origins, Watson and Sheriff’s Country, and it isn’t planning on slowing down soon.
Amy Reisenbach, President of CBS Entertainment, said Tuesday during a Deadline-moderated panel session at the Banff World Media Festival that she was already planning ahead for the 2026-27 broadcast season.
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This may include some new comedies and potentially cooking shows as Reisenbach explained her new programming strategy.
“What’s great as we’re talking about 2025-26, in some cases, we’ve even pinpointed places where we want to be developing for 2026-27 already,” she said. “That’s the joy of working at CBS, and with the schedule and the stability that we have on the schedule, we can think that far in advance. We’re crazy if we’re not taking advantage of that.”
Reisenbach, who was promoted in November 2022, opened the panel by saying she wasn’t able to discuss the impending sale of parent company Paramount. “I can’t comment on anything regarding M&A. It’s very much above my head but what I can say is that it’s obviously incredibly comforting to know that George Cheeks is part of the co-CEO office. It gives us the opportunity at CBS to feel really secure, stable and focused on what we’re doing, which is the business of CBS.”
RELATED: George Cheeks Addresses Paramount Global Shakeup, Company Morale At CBS Schedule Reveal
Similar to what she told Deadline earlier this year in a wide-ranging interview, Reisenbach said she still expects to pick up some development rooms and “potentially even a comedy pilot or two.”
This comes as, for the first time in its history, CBS didn’t order any pilots from the traditional pilot process. “I like to say that we’re just not being beholden to a certain calendar. But in terms of pilots or going straight-to-series, or maybe picking up development rooms and all of that, we want to be bespoke in the way that we do our R&D on shows. So yeah, we’re not going to necessarily be stuck in that calendar year. To me, it’s pilot season is now all the time,” she said.
On the unscripted side, Reisenbach highlighted CBS’ new adventure competition series The Summit and said that she’s already planning a big 50th season anniversary for Survivor.
She’s also keen to find CBS’ own Gordon Ramsay. “We have definitely talked about trying to find our version of a cooking show. I’m personally a big fan of them.”
A number of CBS shows have come or are coming to an end on the network including Blue Bloods, Young Sheldon, Bob Hearts Abishola, NCIS: Hawai’i, CSI: Vegas and So Help Me Todd.
RELATED: ‘So Help Me Todd’ Creator & Cast React To Series Cancellation
Reisenbach said that these are “extremely tough calls to make.” “I’m a big fan of TV first and I sympathize and relate to all of the fans out there who are disappointed in the fact that these shows are ending. But at the end of the day, our job at CBS is to make those really tough calls. We toss and turn and have sleepless nights and have endless discussions but we look at all of the numbers. We look at what our projections are for the future, we look at where we see opportunities to potentially have even bigger success on the schedule.”
Touching on similar themes touched on by Fox CEO Rob Wade and Warner Bros. Television Chairman and CEO Channing Dungey here in Banff, Reisenbach said that it’s a “tumultuous” time in the business, but she’s “bullish” about the future.
“I could not feel more bullish and excited. We have a really great team back in the halls of CBS. I know I couldn’t be up here today, I wouldn’t be up here today without them,” she said. “Yes, it’s a challenging and tumultuous time in business. But we will rise to that challenge, just as we’ve always done and continue to make high quality shows that have a broad reach.”
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