Tweaks at CBS

CBS, which is only down about 3% in the ratings from last year despite the proliferation of DVRs, etc., is applying just a handful of tweaks so far to its schedule, and none with far-reaching ramifications.

On Saturday, Jan. 3, "Game Show in My Head," another chance for Ashton Kutcher to humiliate people, debuts. Basically, people tailed by hidden cameras and wearing earpieces will wander around in public and be instructed to do something embarrassing. If they do, they get money. If they don't - oh, who are they kidding, if they didn't want to disgrace themselves they wouldn't've gone on this show, would they?

(Since making this film, Ashton Kutcher has been hellbent to make sure other people humiliate themselves publicly, too.)

Note that this is actually airing on Saturday, an evening given over of late to repeats, sports and newsmagazines. CBS would assert that this is a bold new initiative of some sort to try to program the evening. I'm guessing they're not expecting too much from this and are putting the best face possible on the situation. It's certainly a cheap show to produce - the most the contestants can earn for debasing themselves in front of a national TV audience is $50K. It'll air at 8 p.m.

"Flashpoint," the summer success starring Enrico Colantoni as the head of an elite Toronto police force, returns Friday, Jan. 9, at 9 p.m..

(What are all these folks with those really big guns overcompensating for?)

What might be a kind of cool mini-series, "Harper's Island," debuts Thursday April 9 at 10 p.m., once "Eleventh Hour" completes its first-season run. We know "Harper's Island" can't actually be turned into a series because most of the characters will be dead by the end of the run.

It's about a group of friends who gather on a secluded island for a wedding celebration, but there's a serial killer among them, and so the body count ratchets at a fairly fearsome rate. Per CBS's press release, "In every episode, someone is killed and every person is a suspect, from the wedding party to the island locals. By the end of the 13 episodes, all questions will be answered, the killer will be revealed and only a few will survive."

(By the end of the show, most of these people will be dead. Murder is fun!)

Now, that's entertainment. And as it's a close-ended show, there's less chance of it going off the rails the way other serialized series do ("Heroes," ahem). And it's produced by people with "Alias," "The X-Files," "Jericho" and "Angel" on their resumes.

CBS hasn't yet announced when it's finally going to give up on "Worst Week" and bring "Rules of Engagement" back, but as far as I'm concerned, "Rules of Engagement" can continue to sit on the shelf, thank you very much.