CBS only tweaks fall schedule

By Paul Thomasch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - CBS unveiled on Wednesday a new comedy and three dramas, including one starring LL Cool J, making slight adjustments to the only prime-time television schedule to increase its audiences in the past season.

The shows joining CBS' prime-time schedule this fall follow the network's pattern of serving up stable but popular fare: a legal drama, a medical drama, a crime drama and an ensemble comedy.

"Nobody likes hearing they're not sexy," CBS Corp Chief Executive Les Moonves told advertisers as he introduced the new schedule. "But the good news is we really like being No. 1."

To some degree, CBS faces less pressure than other TV broadcasters to announce radical schedule changes at the upfront, a period each spring when the networks set new prime-time lineups and advertisers pay billions of dollars for commercial time.

It was the only broadcast network to increase ratings during the 2008-09 season, and is home to "CSI," the top drama, "Two And A Half Men," the top comedy, and the long-running reality series "Survivor."

"I would think in today's marketplace stability would be pretty attractive to you," Moonves said.

Still, all the networks face a tough advertising market. This year's upfront could reap the networks 15 percent less revenue from ad deals than last year, analysts say.

CBS Corp, the media company that owns the broadcast network, derives most of its revenue from advertising, including billboards, radio spots and TV commercials, and has been hard hit by the ad downturn. CBS shares have fallen more than 65 percent in the past year.