TV Angel

It’s not the first time a premium cable channel has repurposed original programming for use off-network. Recently HBO properties “Sex and the City” and “The Sopranos” have made the jump to TBS and A&E, respectively. However “Dexter” may represent the first time the type of risque fare specifically reserved for pay TV has found its way to a broadcast network.

The move has not been without controversy, as the Parents Television Council has threatened a boycott over the series. Still, the decision seems to have paid off. Last Sunday’s episode of “Dexter” earned CBS second place in the ratings for the 10 o’clock hour, falling only behind the Oscars on ABC.

CBS has also become one of several networks to go international in its search for new programming for network audiences. The eye network will be developing at least two scripted dramas based on shows from overseas.

The first is short-lived British series “Ny-Lon” which follows the efforts of a couple to maintain a long distance relationship from opposite sides of the pond. The second show, “Mythological X,” hails from Isreal and is about a woman who learns from a psychic that her ‘one true love’ has already come and gone from her life.

Yet in what is perhaps the boldest choice by CBS executives, CBS will become the first of the Big Three networks to air live mixed martial arts (MMA) competition. The network recently announced broadcast partnership between CBS and ProElite, Inc., parent company of MMA promotion EliteXC. The multi-year deal calls for CBS to air 4 two-hour EliteXC events in prime time.

Few can deny that MMA is coming into its own, both in terms of popularity and profitability. Furthermore, the emerging sport has proven its drawing power with the young, male demographic so desirable to network advertisers. CBS is hardly treating MMA as a fad, but rather has made a long-term commitment to EliteXC.

EliteXC is another programming transplant from Showtime.

What unites all of these programming additions is that all of the new content from CBS has already been tried and tested elsewhere, whether on another network or in another country. In that sense, CBS is minimizing its risk, which is just good business.

Yet CBS is still offers viewers something novel, if not altogether new. The network is obviously paying some attention to its audience by seeking to satisfy interests that viewers have already expressed.

It’s a hopeful sign that a major network is looking beyond the programming quick fix that reality television has largely become. In so doing, the eye network may just pull ahead in the race to pull television out of a ratings slump.