CBS Gives Full Season Orders to 'Scorpion', 'NCIS: New Orleans', Two Others

CBS is pretty confident in its lineup of freshman shows for the 2014-2015 season.

The network has given full season orders to Scorpion, NCIS: New Orleans, Stalker, and Madam Secretary.

“These four shows have had an immediate impact on our schedule by improving nights, winning time periods and adding more hours of success across our primetime line up,” said CBS Entertainment chairman Nina Tassler.

The additional episodes for Scorpion, the "geniuses solving crimes" procedural, are no big surprise. It's a genuine hit for the network, averaging over 15 million viewers each week. Of course, it could be argued that the large audience is the result of its Big Bang Theory lead-in. But the show has retained a pretty impressive audience. It's not as impressive as the audience for NCIS: New Orleans though. The spinoff of TV's top network drama averages a stunning 18.16 million viewers, according to Entertainment Weekly, making this a complete no-brainer for a full season order.

But that's about it for the no-brainers: Madam Secretary averages 13.5 million viewers, but it only scores a 1.8 in the demo, which is a bit underwhelming, even considering how much older the drama skews. Stalker is also a bit of a surprise. The show, which has been utterly ravaged by critics, averages 9.5 million viewers, which makes it the weakest new drama in the lineup. Still, the full season order isn't exactly baffling, per se, considering CBS likely has nothing to put in its place if they pull it from the schedule, although I suppose an NCIS rerun would probably do a surprisingly good number, considering how popular that show continues to be. Regardless, while not every decision for CBS has been a slam dunk, these choices at least make a certain kind of sense.

Via: Entertainment Weekly

Credit: CBS