Courtesy of CBS Television Studios(BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.) — CBS had plenty to announce Wednesday at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills. Here are some tidbits to come out of the network:
* Star Trek: Discovery, the new show premiering on the CBS All Access digital and streaming service in January, will have a female lead. The character will not be a captain, but rather a lieutenant commander.
Creator Bryan Fuller commented, “To see a character from a different perspective on a starship who has a different dynamic relationship with the captain, with subordinates, felt like it was going to give us richer context.”
Fuller also revealed there will be a gay character on the show. He recalled that when he worked on Star Trek Voyager he got letters over a rumor that Jeri Ryan’s character might be gay: “The bile in that letter, I kept it because I was like, if I ever do a Star Trek show there’s gonna be a gay character.”
* The summer series Zoo, based on the James Patterson novel, has been renewed for a third season. It will return in the summer of 2017. The season-two finale airs September 6.
* CBS has ordered two new seasons of another summer show, Big Brother. Season 19 will air next summer, followed by season 20 in the summer of 2018.
* Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show will air live following the first presidential debate on September 26, the vice presidential debate on October 4, and the third presidential debate on October 19. The program aired live on the nights of the recent Republican and Democratic National Conventions.
* Britney Spears will join James Corden for his next “Carpool Karaoke” segment on The Late Late Show on August 25.
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