New drama grabs coveted time slot in CBS fall lineup

Associated Press

Richard Dreyfuss plays a college professor in one of the five new dramas coming to a much-scrambled CBS prime-time schedule.

CBS also is moving "Touched By an Angel" back to Saturday nights, eliminating one of its weekly movies and bringing Ellen DeGeneres back in a new situation comedy.

Canceled are "Diagnosis Murder," "Nash Bridges," "The Fugitive" and "Kate Brasher."

"The Education of Max Bickford," the Dreyfuss vehicle, was given the plum Sunday time slot following " 60 Minutes." Dreyfuss plays a college professor who is passed over for a long-overdue promotion in favor of a character played by a fellow Academy Award winner, Marcia Gay Harden.

In one of the two new comedies, DeGeneres plays a lesbian Internet executive who moves back to her small home town. Other new shows on CBS:

• "The Guardian," a drama starring Simon Baker as a young lawyer.
• "Wolf Lake," a science-fiction drama.
• "The Agency," a drama about a secret CIA unit.
• "Citizen Baines," about a three-term U.S. senator who loses a bid for re-election.
• "American Wreck," a comedy starring Daniel Stern as a single father.