MUMBAI: US broadcaster CBS has renewed 18 series for the 2013-2014 broadcast season.

Some of these shows air in India on Big CBS Prime and Big CBS Love, the two channels that CBS runs in India through its JV with RBNL.

According to CBS, these mass renewals showcase its strength and stability among viewers in the 18-49 and 25-54 demographics.
The renewals, comprising 16 hours of CBS? primetime schedule, consist of four comedies, nine dramas, three reality series and two news magazines. The returning shows encompass every night of the week and every hour.

The renewed comedies include the previously announced ?The Big Bang Theory?, the final season of ?How I Met Your Mother? as well as ?2 Broke Girls? and ?Mike and Molly?.

Among the returning dramas are the previously announced ?NCIS? and ?CSI?. Other dramas renewed include ?NCIS: Los Angeles?, ?Person Of Interest? and ?Hawaii Five-0?.

MUMBAI: US broadcaster CBS has announced summer dates for two dramas, a reality series and an expanded season of ?Big Brother?.

A new reality competition series based on the UK format, ?The Great British Bake Off?, kicks off on 29 May. The series features skilled amateur Americans competing in baking challenges with one ultimately being crowned the winner.

?Under The Dome?, a new 13-episode serialised drama based on Stephen King?s best-selling novel and produced by Steven Spielberg?s Amblin Entertainment, kicks off on 24 June. ?Hawaii Five-0? will move to Friday during the summer.

?Under The Dome? is the story of a small town that is suddenly and inexplicably sealed off from the rest of the world by an enormous transparent dome. The town?s inhabitants must deal with surviving the post-apocalyptic conditions while searching for answers to what this barrier is, where it came from and if and when it will go away.

?Big Brother? will have a longer edition this summer, premiering two weeks earlier than previous years on 26 June. ?NCIS: Los Angeles? will move to Tuesday (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) beginning 2 July.

?Unforgettable? starring Poppy Montgomery as a police detective with a rare condition that makes her memory so flawless that everything is embedded in her mind, and Dylan Walsh as her ex-boyfriend and partner, returns for its second season on 28 July. It replaces summer rebroadcasts of ?The Good Wife?.

MUMBAI: Sporting and live events dominated when it came to wooing TV viewers in the US in 2012, as has been the case in recent years.

Super Bowl XLVI set new viewership heights by netting 111.3 million viewers, to edge out viewership for last year?s Super Bowl (111.0 million viewers).

Competitive reality programming continued to garner high viewership as well. ?American Idol?, ?Dancing with the Stars? and ?The Voice? all made way to the Top Ten list of regularly scheduled programmes.

For the second year in a row, only two scripted shows made to the same list. This year it was ?NCIS? and ?Vegas?.

Time-shifting played a larger role in American viewing habits in 2012, as evidenced by the significant lift in programme viewership, most notably with cable programming. Viewers time-shifted more of their viewing than in 2011, as each program on the list more than doubled its live viewership?last year, the highest gain was 90 per cent.

Cable shows comprised 90 per cent of this year?s list and all of the top time-shifted shows were scripted dramas.

Mumbai: Big CBS Prime, the English general entertainment channel from Big CBS Network, is launching the ninth season of the investigative series NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) on 7 May.

The show will air every Monday to Friday at 9 pm.

NCIS focuses on the complex and ?amusing? dynamics of a team forced to work together in high-stress situations - murder to espionage to terrorism and stolen submarines, these special agents traverse the globe to investigate all crimes with Navy or Marine Corps ties.

Targeted at urban male audiences, Big CBS Prime plans to air 24 episodes of the show this season. It will roll out a 360 degree promotional campaign for the show which will include cross promotion, digital and social media marketing along with trade marketing across strategic metros.

NCIS is an US format that has been licensed to over 200 markets around the world.