CBS gets serious with five new dramas in lineup

? CBS has expanded its drama roster for the 2002-03 fall season, adding five new series to its lineup. Two comedies will also join the network’s slate.

Four of the dramas are variations on the cop show-private eye theme, with the network perhaps hoping to duplicate the success of its hit “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.” A spinoff, “CSI: Miami,” was given the 9 p.m. Monday timeslot after the cast was introduced on last Thursday’s “CSI.”

While the net’s schedule is fairly stable, with most of its top-rated shows staying in the same timeslots, there were some changes to every night but Tuesday. Most significant is the move of “Becker” from Monday to Sunday, where it will follow “60 Minutes” and lead into the new comedy “Bram and Alice,” about a novelist (Alfred Molina, “Chocolat”) who agrees to live with the grown daughter (Traylor Howard, “Two Guys and a Girl”) he never knew.

The other comedy, “Still Standing,” takes over “Becker’s” former spot at 8:30 p.m. Monday. It stars Mark Addy (“The Full Monty”) and Jami Gertz (“Ally McBeal”) as a blue-collar couple trying to keep the fire lit while dealing with their three kids.

Gone from the schedule are “The Education of Max Bickford,” “First Monday” and “Family Law.” Newsmagazine “48 Hours” will air only once a week 7 p.m. Friday, with a new title, “48 Hours Investigates” while on-the-bubble dramas “Touched by an Angel” and “The Agency” were picked up. “Touched” stays put at 7 p.m. Saturday, while “The Agency” moves from Thursday to 9 p.m. Saturday, following “The District.”

In addition to “CSI: Miami,” which stars David Caruso (“NYPD Blue”), Emily Procter (“The West Wing”) and Adam Rodriguez (“Roswell”), the new dramas are:

“Presidio Med” (9 p.m. Wednesday): John Wells, Lydia Woodward and Christopher Chulack, all veterans of “ER,” are producing this series about doctors who work together in San Francisco. It will air opposite another San Francisco-set medical show, ABC’s “Meds.”

l “Without a Trace” (9 p.m. Thursday): A procedural about an FBI task force that finds missing persons using psychological profiling techniques that should match up well with its “CSI” lead-in.

l “Hack” (8 p.m. Friday): David Morse (“St. Elsewhere”) plays a disgraced former cop who now works as a cabbie and does some crime-solving on the side.

l “RHD/LA” (9 p.m. Friday): The “RHD” stands for Robbery Homicide Division in this cop show about Los Angeles detectives from executive producer Michael Mann (“Miami Vice,” “Ali,” “Heat”).

At midseason, CBS will debut “Queens Supreme,” a courtroom drama starring Oliver Platt (“The West Wing”) and Annabella Sciorra (“The Sopranos”). Comedy “Baby Bob” will also return in midseason.