CBS Sets Winter Schedule: ‘Criminal Minds’ Returns To Original Slot For Final Season, ‘NCIS: New Orleans’ Moves To Sunday

Nellie Andreeva

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CBS has unveiled its early midseason schedule. It features two new drama series additions, FBI spinoff FBI: Most Wanted and Edie Falco starrer Tommy, as well as the returns of Criminal Minds for its 15th and final season and MacGyver for its fourth. CBS also has set a premiere date for the milestone 40th season of Survivor in February.

Missing from the lineup are new comedy Broke, starring Pauley Perrette and Jaime Camil; returning comedy Man with a Plan, starring Matt LeBlanc; and unscripted stalwart The Amazing Race. There will be scheduling news on them later in the season.

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Like it has done with the NCIS and Criminal Minds franchises, CBS is launching spinoff FBI: Most Wanted behind the mothership series on Tuesdays, starting with the January 7 premiere.

To make room for FBI: Most Wanted in the post-FBI Tuesday 10 PM slot, NCIS: New Orleans will leave the night where it has aired since its September 2014 launch, at 9 PM for the first two seasons and at 10 PM since the start of Season 3. Now in Season 6, NCIS: New Orleans will move into the Sunday 10 PM time period which will become vacated when Madam Secretary finishes its 10-episode sixth and final season.

NCIS: New Orleans will make its Sunday debut on February 16, forming a two-hour 9-11 PM NCIS block with NCIS: Los Angeles, which airs at 9 PM on the night.

For the first time since the 2016-17 season, Undercover Boss will be used as a bridge program between the two cycles of Survivor. It will premiere January 8, leading to the two-hour Season 15 premiere of Criminal Minds. The veteran crime drama also will end its run with a two-hour series finale from 9-11 PM on February 19. Between the supersized bookends, Criminal Minds will air in its longtime Wednesday 9 PM slot where it had spent the first 12 seasons before shifting to 10 PM in fall 2017.

With its final run, Criminal Minds will temporary replace drama SEAL Team, which will return to the Wednesday lineup with a two-hour 9-11 PM episode on February 26.

The 40th season and 20th year of Survivor will debut with a special two-hour episode February. 12. The reality juggernaut will move to its regular Wednesday 8-9 PM time period February 19.

New cop drama Tommy starring Edie Falco will premiere February 6, taking over the Thursday 10 PM slot following the end of Evil, which is designed for 13-episode runs and already has been renewed for a second season.

Starting February 7, CBS will revert to the Friday lineup of the last three seasons of MacGyver at 8 PM, Hawaii Five-0 at 9 PM and Blue Bloods as the 10 PM anchor. Magnum PI, which currently airs at 9 PM following Hawaii Five-0, will go to the bench to make room for MacGyver. It will return with the remainder of its episodes once MacGyver finishes its season.

CBS’ WINTER 2020 SCHEDULE

Tuesday, January 7

8-9 PM – NCIS
9-10 PM – FBI
10-11 PM- FBI: MOST WANTED (Series Premiere)

Wednesday, January 8

8-9 PM – UNDERCOVER BOSS (Ninth Season Premiere)
9-10 PM – CRIMINAL MINDS (2-Hour 15th Season Premiere)

Wednesday, January 15

8-9 PM – UNDERCOVER BOSS
9-10 PM – CRIMINAL MINDS (Regular Time Period)
10-11 PM – S.W.A.T.

Thursday, February 6

8-8:30 PM – YOUNG SHELDON
8:30-9 PM – THE UNICORN
9-9:30 PM – MOM
9:30-10 PM – CAROL’S SECOND ACT
10-11 PM – TOMMY (Series Premiere)

Friday, February 7

8-9 PM – MACGYVER (Fourth Season Premiere)
9-10 PM – HAWAII FIVE-0 (New Time Period)
10-11 PM – BLUE BLOODS

Wednesday, February 12

8-10 PM – SURVIVOR (2-Hour 40th Season Premiere)
10-11 PM – CRIMINAL MINDS (special time)

Sunday, February 16

8-9 PM – GOD FRIENDED ME
9-10 PM – NCIS: LOS ANGELES
10-11 PM – NCIS: NEW ORLEANS (New Time Period)

Wednesday, February 19

8-9 PM – SURVIVOR (Regular Time Period)
9-11 PM – CRIMINAL MINDS (2-Hour Series Finale)

About FBI: MOST WANTED

FBI: MOST WANTED stars Julian McMahon in a high-stakes drama that focuses on the Fugitive Task Force, which relentlessly tracks and captures the notorious criminals on the Bureau’s Most Wanted list. Seasoned agent Jess LaCroix (McMahon) oversees the highly skilled team that functions as a mobile undercover unit that’s always out in the field, pursuing those who are most desperate to elude justice. Roxy Sternberg, Nathaniel Arcand, Keisha Castle-Hughes and Kellan Lutz also star.

Dick Wolf, René Balcer, Arthur W. Forney and Peter Jankowski are executive producers for Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television in association with CBS Television Studios.

About TOMMY

In TOMMY, a new series that’s equal parts political, procedural and family drama, Edie Falco stars as a former high-ranking NYPD officer who becomes the first female Chief of Police for Los Angeles. A true blue New Yorker, Abigail “Tommy” Thomas (Falco) uses her unflinching honesty and hardball tactics to keep social, political and national security issues from hindering effective law enforcement in the Southland. Michael Chernus, Adelaide Clemens, Thomas Sadoski, Russell G. Jones, Olivia Lucy Phillip, Joseph Lyle Taylor and Vladimir Caamaño also star.

Paul Attanasio, Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey, Tom Szentgyorgyi and Kate Dennis (pilot only) are executive producers for CBS Television Studios.

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