When Britney Spears first guest starred on CBS’s “How I Met Your Mother” on March 24, 9.7 million viewers watched her live. Thanks to the efforts of CBS Interactive – as detailed at the network’s Upfront presentation at Carnegie Hall Wednesday – an additional 7 million people have been exposed to that episode thanks to a combination of the episode streaming online and viral video excerpts.
“Those Britney clips are like liquid crack,” says Quincy Smith, president of CBS Interactive. “It seems like a natural extension to ask Britney to be on all our shows: CSI Britney.com.” (He’s only kidding a little – Spears’ return visit to the show on May 14 tallied 9 million – an increase over 8.3 million the previous week.)
“Mother” will return to the CBS lineup this fall, alongside stalwarts like “CSI,” “CSI: Miami,” “CSI: New York” and “NCIS.” In terms of new shows with potential for placement, CBS traditionally has had success with synchs in their procedural crime dramas – any fan of the “CSI” franchise knows the producers’ penchant for using the Who for their theme songs – and two more cop shows are being added to the network this fall.
The first is “Eleventh Hour,” which stars Rufus Sewell as an advisor to the government who must investigate scientific dilemmas – in the clip shown at the Upfront, the topic was illegal cloning. The show is produced by CBS favorite Jerry Bruckheimer, who also produces all the “CSIs,” “Without A Trace,” “Cold Case” and “The Amazing Race” for the network.
The second crime drama is “The Mentalist,” starring Simon Baker as a hyper-perceptive ex-celebrity psychic who now helps the California Bureau of Investigations solve crimes.
A non-crime drama with potential for placements is “The Ex List,” starring “Grey’s Anatomy’s” Elizabeth Reaser as a woman who is told by a psychic she must revisit her past relationships to find her soul mate.
In addition to these shows, Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment, said the network is transitioning to a 52-week strategy and will be making more announcements on programming as the season progresses. (One show has already been announced: “Harper’s Island,” a 13-episode murder mystery series where one guest after another on a secluded island gets bumped off.)
There was a quick nod to CBS’s imminent summer programming during the announcement, including a clip from upcoming reality show “Greatest American Dog” wherein an owner insists her pup’s favorite musician is Josh Groban.
Besides the programming announcements, the CBS Upfront focused quite a bit on cross-platforms and technology, with Smith noting that “we want our content to follow our users, not our users to follow our content.” To that end, CBS singed a deal with EQAL Studios, the web content creators behind online video hits lonelygirl15 and KateModern. CBS will now get a first look to develop the properties EQAL creates, and the company will work with script writers to hash out online components to their shows.
A portion of the Upfront also was dedicated to CBS Radio, with L.A. morning radio personality/comedian Adam Carolla selling the reach of the medium: “Ninety percent of people listen to radio each week. The other 10% are in Ted Kaczynski’s shack knitting a sweater out of human hair.” He also suggested to advertisers that radio personalities hold a significant amount of sway with their audiences, and that he could sell “a moccasin full of cat crap” to his listeners.
