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CBS may turn to Showtime’s Dexter

It may need to be heavily edited for broadcast TV, but one of Showtime’s most critically-acclaimed shows may provide the Eye network with some “fresh” programming in the strike-shortened season that’s headed our way after the first of the year. CBS is considering airing the first two seasons of Showtime’s Dexter, which will expose the cleverly-written show to a broader audience that doesn’t necessarily subscribe to Showtime.

The drama, headlined by Michael C. Hall, focuses on the saga of a serial killer who works as a police CSI blood-splatter specialist by day, and preys on other serial killers by night. The first season of Dexter garnered rave reviews and the soon-to-be-completed second season has overachieved in the eyes of critics who expected a sophomore slump form the witty drama, based on the 2004 Jeffrey Lindsay novel, Darkly Dreaming Dexter. Two more novels have followed, 2005’s Dearly Devoted Dexter and 2007’s Dexter In the Dark. If the show performs well on CBS, it could be a money making move that results in diamond pendants for everyone; if it falters, it could show that viewers have little tolerance for shows that have already appeared on other networks being repurposed for broadcast network airings. Time will tell.

While the Showtime drama features a fair amount of nudity and a heavy dose of profanity compared to traditional network fare, the important aspect in picking up the show for network rebroadcast, from CBS’s point of view, is that there are 24 completed episodes completed that, so far, only Showtime subscribers - and those who bought the Season One DVDs - have seen before now.

In other news, freshman sitcom The Big Bang Theory and freshman vampire drama Moonlight have both received second-season orders from the Eye network; The Big Bang Theory is a Chuck Lorre Productions show that did well in the eight episodes completed prior to the strike; Moonlight has about 12 to 14 episodes in the can, with roughly 10 episodes aired so far. It is unclear whether the second-season orders will consist of 22 new episodes plus the uncompleted episodes from the first season, or if the uncompleted first season episodes and scrapped and storylines planned for the first season will be moved into the second-season order, once the WGA writers strike is ultimately resolved.