CBS is kicking off its premiere week with recent episodes of each show — but why are Matlock and Elsbeth dropping several recent episodes days apart?
The network aired the season 2 premiere of Matlock on Sunday, October 12, before following it up with the season 3 premiere of Elsbeth. While each shows returned on Sunday, viewers know that Matlock and Elsbeth often air on Thursdays, which is the plan starting October 16.
Just like last fall, CBS has previewed certain shows outside of their usual timeslots as a method to construct up anticipation for the remainder of the season.
Other shows set to return this week include the NCIS franchise, The Neighborhood, Watson, FBI, Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, Ghosts, Fire Country and Tracker. There may be also programming that viewers can stay up for corresponding to DMV, Sheriff Country, Boston Blue and The Road.
Before Fire Country returned to Friday nights, creators Tony Phelan and Joan Rater broke right down to Us Weekly the changes the show might be going through after Stephanie Arcila and Billy Burke‘s respective exits.
In accordance with Phelan, there was “an actual desire” to “not only shake things up” but additionally “to be true to” the truth of writing a show about firefighters within the line of duty. Rater, meanwhile, teased how the “huge loss” would affect everyone in season 4.
While Vince has been killed off, Gabriela could still return.
“For Gabriela, it was very difficult within the second half of the season for her to be around and see Bode. They only haven’t been in a position to make that connection,” Phelan explained in September about Gabriela leaving the show for now. “To present those two characters a pause — a break from that dynamic — and if and after they come back together again, they might be different people.”
Rater agreed that it was for the perfect, adding, “That is the season about letting our people grow up. Growing up isn’t easy and the difficult part about Bode and Gabriela is that they realize they should grow up and so they can’t do it together straight away.”
Meanwhile, over on Tracker, Justin Hartley, Fiona Rene and Chris Lee are the one remaining series regulars after Eric Graise and Abby McEnany exited ahead of season 3. Tracker previously saw Robin Weigert depart the show following the season 1 finale.
Viewers began to get concerned about future solid changes, to which executive producer Elwood Reid exclusively told Us Weekly that onscreen shakeups weren’t out of the query.
“I do think it’s evolving. If I can’t evolve those characters — Randy or Reenie or Bobby — they’re not only those who just pick up the phone and go, ‘OK, here is the reply.’ That’s when the show is phoning it in,” he explained to Us in May. “The challenge is while you got to find out about them, which I assumed was interesting. That’s the challenge of the show is just not having it fall right into a formula.”
Reid noted that they didn’t want Tracker to “fall into complacency.”
“The one rule I actually have of the show is each week Colter goes to come back to a brand new place and there’s going to be a brand new case. How he gets those answers and what he uses on the team, that’s all something that’s up for grabs,” Reid teased. “Meeting these [local] weird characters is something we’re going to attempt to do more of because the season goes on. Just Colter coming in and interacting with other characters. That’s fun to see Justin flex those muscles with really good guest solid members.”