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CBS has added a medical drama to its mix of hourlong pilots, greenlighting The Surgeon General from Lie To Me creator/executive producer Samuel Baum. Baum wrote and executive produces the CBS TV Studios-produced project, which centers on Dr. John Sherman — the most powerful doctor in the nation, the Surgeon General, who has 315 million patients. As “America’s Doctor,” Sherman and his team battle the powerful forces of politics and business, fighting to protect the health of everyday Americans. The Surgeon General stems from the development deal Baum inked with CBS TV Studios last fall.
This is the second CBS drama pilot with a doctor at the center, joining the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced conspiracy thriller Hostages starring Toni Collette as a successful DC surgeon selected to operate on the President of the United States who is thrust into the middle of a political conspiracy. As usual, the network is betting heavily on the classic cop/crime, legal and medical franchises. Its cop prospects include Beverly Hills Cop, Backstrom and the NCIS: LA spinoff, its legal fare The Advocates and The Ordained. The pilots will now be cast and filmed, with CBS deciding in May which ones will go to series for launch next season.
For a full list of the broadcast pilots and all of Deadline’s pilot season coverage, go to our Pilot Panic page.
Playwright/TV writer Baum, repped by CAA and Jackoway Tyerman, co-created the 2006 ABC drama series Evidence before creating the Tim Roth starrer Lie To Me, which ran on Fox for three seasons.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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Snoooze.
How’s about a series detailing a horrible doctor that severely messes people up. I don’t think I’ve seen that yet.
This sounds stupid. How about real medicine and real doctors. ER was a great show. We cared. The Surgeon General is a ceremonial job. It must appeal to Moonves’s ego. This is not a show.
How does this become closed-ended for CBS? One thing 3 CBS pickups have in common is a political back drop…that hasn’t translated to rating success on Good Wife although it did once have critical acclaim. It’s also very interesting to see so few CBS tv studios drama projects moving forward. Without the ability to make “commitments” early in the season theyre seeing WB, 20th, and Sony leave them in the dust. Time for network to re-evaluate making production commitments early in season.
Very well put and I agree with it completely
Why did CBS pick this up? Vertical integration? Sounds so boring. Like ER comment earlier. Write a real medical. Female writers getting the shaft this year especially in drama.
This guy again? How many chances does he get?
I hope this doesn’t become a Health-Nazi propaganda show.
It will be. That is the whole reason for doing it.
Let’s just call this what it is, propaganda to push Obamacare as the best thing ever to happen to the american people. Every week some contrived story about how the SG uses the miracle of Obamacare to thwart evil businesses and evil Republicans while saving the poor, the minorities and unlimited abortions…err i mean,saving womens contraceptives….
Nothing more interesting than watching a doctor who doesn’t see patients. Will he finish his paperwork? Tune in next week to “The Surgeon General”!
“Coming Soon: he sets aside land for national parks. Registers and preserves historic sites. You’ve seen secretaries before — but never like this. Coming soon to CBS: ‘Interior.’”
God you guys are angry. Maybe get a hobby?
Why are we angry? Runaway debt, no jobs, no budget for four years, death panels, obamacare, bank bailouts, auto bailouts, gun grabs, illegal immigration….and those are just the one’s that come quickly to mind. This show is simply another way to prop up that tin plated dictator with delusions of relevancy.
How about a reality show about what happens when real people lose their jobs, their homes and everything they own because of the horrible job obama has done as president the last four years. CBS wants to “make a difference” maybe they ought to get off the messiah train and practice some real news and or entertainment.
Seriously. These comments are all so stupid. The script is great. Do you people have nothing better to do than speculate the worst? If you hate TV so much, stop watching.
Everytime I see the Surgeon General,he/she has a bunch of medals on their uniform.Just where did they serve that they get all that fruit salad on their chests?
at the ‘Pawn Stars.’
surgeon general is not a surgeon. A surgeon is no average doctor. A surgeon trains 2x longer than any other “doctor”.
“internal medicine” is the default training path for doctors…… surgery is the “honors course” (excuse me, exceptional medical doctors, but you know it’s true).
tragic that this term remains.
Personally,I’d rather read the surgeon general’s warning on a pack than watch this program.Seriously though, who will tune in for this pilot? Hopefully,so few viewers watch the pilot episode that this never becomes an ongoing series. CBS can’t really believe people will actually tune in for this? Then again,millions tune in for that empty NCIS show on CBS,so,I suppose anything is possible.
Insane. It’s a desk job. Dr Koop. But then these are the guys who gave us a show about transplants and another about a doc and a ghost.
It will be a liberal show highlighting the wonders of abortions and horrors of gun ownership.
No, Fox news already covers that, Retired.
I shudder to think they let you handle a rifle.
Somebody needs a nap… Not a “dirt nap”. Just a nap, and perhaps a bottle.
I am just having difficulty envisioning what sorts of plots the episodes would have. Will it be a political show or a medical show? The only way I could see it working from a dramatic standpoint is if there were an actual pandemic crisis to battle. THEN this sort of show would make sense.
This will simply be more media agitprop for government control of EVERYTHING.
How many episodes do we have to wait until the Surgeon General cures anything? Hypertension, cancer, Alzheimer’s, the flu, anything? If you have to take a pill every day for the rest of your life, that’s not a cure, that’s an addiction.
How about “Celebrity Death Panel”, or “Death Panel Gong Show”?
“The Surgeon General has 315 million patients.” If I weren’t laughing so hard I’d cry. He hasn’t got ONE PATIENT. CBS thinks this is a medical West Wing, which is beyond inane. They now have two hybrid medical/political shows. Hybrid medical shows (Mob Doctor anyone?) don’t work. But then this is the network that brought us Dr. Vegas. Remember that gem?
Of all their drama pilots, this sounds like it would be the least interesting. But, I still say CBS has the most chances at spawning hits. Everything they are taking a look at, including the sitcoms, sound like potential BIG WINNERS, with the exception of this one. I almost fell asleep reading the details of this pilot(LOL). But yeah, I think CBS is in for its biggest fall season in years, with hits galore if Backstrom, The Advocates, The Ordained, the Chuck Lorre sitcoms, and NCIS 3 all stick like I think they will. They all read like the big hits that the network already cleans up with on a nightly basis. The other networks have never learned to replicate the success of their hits, although NBC is getting better at choosing potential hits.
I honestly don’t know anyone younger than 50 who watches CBS. It’s a bunch of the same shows that have been on TV for 20 years, predictable, laugh track “Comedies” and cop shows that only require tuning in for the last 10 minutes.
God, that’s so weird… I wonder how their ratings got so high? Guess they’d better start targeting your awesome social circle.
I smell some propaganda coming on; Let me guess.. It’s how we need Obamacare and socialized medicine so bad because everything is so unfair. It will further demonize fat people and overplay the “obesity epidemic” card to further instill the opinion that fat people are horrible and deserve what they get, so deny them healthcare because they are sucking all the resources from everyone else, and we need government to control our behavior. Hollywood.. you are so tired and predictable.
I would LOVE a new medical show about real doctors in a hospital with patients. This just sounds like a stupid mash up of medical & political. No thanks.
Years ago in med school I had a pipe dream of being surgeon general one day. Then I went to a lobbying training retreat and got to meet the then current SG. Chatted with him, turns out that as a political appointee (not elected), they pretty much can do squat other than public service messages. Very depressing given I had aspirations to improve American health. As for the medals, it’s a ceremonial garb they often have to wear in public, has nothing to do with military service.
Let me know what day that will be on, I’ll plan on cleaning my toilets that night!!!
So he goes from ‘Lie to Me’ to ‘Bore Me’