CBS Schedules ‘World’s Best’, Celebrity ‘Big Brother’ & ‘Million Dollar Mile’ For Midseason In Big Unscripted Push

Deadline

November 27, 2018 at 12:00 PM

CBS has set the unscripted part of its midseason schedule, and it features three additions, new talent competition series The World’s Best hosted by James Corden, new obstacle course competition series Million Dollar Mile hosted by Tim Tebow, as well as the second season of Big Brother: Celebrity Edition, with Julie Chen Moonves confirmed to return as host.

With veteran Survivor coming back later in the spring, followed by a new season of fellow stalwart The Amazing Race, this marks the most reality series CBS has put on during the regular broadcast season in awhile. Additionally, Introducing two new reality series in-season also is the most in years for CBS, which has long relied heavily on its venerable unscripted franchises, Survivor, The Amazing Race and Big Brother, as the network is mounting its most aggressive push yet to find new unscripted hits of that magnitude.

To do so, CBS will use Survivor and The Amazing Race to help launch the newcomers, both from Warner Horizon Unscripted & Alternative TV. That would relocate SEAL Team from 9 PM to 10 PM on Wednesday, replacing Criminal Minds, which won’t be getting additional episodes.

Following its debut after the Super Bowl on Feb. 3, The World’s Best, co-produced by MGM Television and Fulwell 73, will temporarily air in Survivor‘s 8 PM Wednesday slot before the veteran returns with a new cycle Feb. 20 when The World’s Best, featuring judges judges Drew Barrymore, RuPaul Charles and Faith Hill, will slide to 9 PM, airing the rest of its episodes with Survivor as a lead-in as CBS’ Wednesday 9 PM slot dweller SEAL Team takes a break. The network will experiment with a 8-10 PM unscripted block on Wednesdays for the rest of the season and beyond.

Since veteran crime drama Criminal Minds has a curtailed Season 14 order of 15 episodes, it will wrap its run early, with SEAL Team taking over its Wednesday 10 PM berth when the sophomore drama returns to the schedule on March 13. Two weeks later, following the end of The World’s Best, a collaboration between Mike Darnell and Mark Burnett, Million Dollar Mile, executive produced by LeBron James, will debut in the Wednesday 9 PM time period and will have Survivor as a lead-in until May 22 when the veteran competition completes its season and is succeeded in the hour by The Amazing Race.

Last season, CBS slotted The Amazing Race as a bridge between the two cycles of Survivor in the Wednesday 8 PM slot. The globe-trotting contest is staying in the time period but it will now help bridge the spring and fall seasons of Survivor as CBS is looking to establish the time slot as home of the network’s top unscripted franchises year-round. The hour also houses Big Brother in the summer.

Speaking of CBS’ summer staple, its second midseason celebrity edition will have the franchise’s most aggressive air pattern ever, airing episodes on every night of the week. It will also run in multiple time periods on some nights, giving relief to more scripted CBS series to avoid repeats.

CBS’ WINTER SCHEDULE FEATURING REALITY SERIES

Monday, Jan. 21

8:00-9:00 PM: BIG BROTHER: CELEBRITY EDITION (2nd Season Premiere)

Tuesday, Jan. 22 .