CBS is bringing back their classic Sunday Night Movies banner for six weeks starting on October 4. The limited run will feature modern classics from the library of corporate sibling Paramount Studios.
The move is to give the network some additional time to ready the return of new scripted programming, much of which has been delayed due to coronavirus production concerns.
Currently, the reality series Big Brother occupies CBS’s Sunday night schedule. It will be moved to Mondays starting October 5 for the six week run of Sunday Night Movies.
Here is the schedule for Sunday Night Movies‘s six week run –
- October 4 – Old School — 9:30-11:30 PM, ET/9-11 PM, PT
- October 11 – Clueless — 9:30-11:30 PM, ET/9-11 PM, PT
- October 18 – Ferris Bueller’s Day Off — 8-10:30 PM, ET/PT
- October 25 – Scream – 8:30-11 PM, ET/8-10:30 PM, ET/PT
- November 1 – Star Trek Beyond — 8-11:00 PM, ET/PT
- November 29 – Coming To America — 8:30-11 PM, ET/8-10:30 PM, PT
And while all of these films are considered modern classics that most people have seen already, I still can’t fault the selection of titles here for one simple reason. All of these films are either rated PG-13 or R in their original form. As they will undoubtedly have the content that earned them those ratings trimmed somewhat out of consideration for broadcast television standards, it makes the films more family friendly, so parents with younger children may be more inclined to introduced these films to them.
On a more practical side, more than half of the lineup does serve as promotion for various other Paramount/Viacom projects including a reimaging of Clueless as an hour-long mystery series from CBS TV Studios, a new Scream film currently in development, the new content available for Viacom’s ongoing Star Trek franchise over on their CBS All Access streaming service and the Eddie Murphy-starring sequel Coming 2 America due out in December.
CBS launched their Sunday Night Movie franchise in 1986, although it had a dedicated week night for theatrical and made-for-TV movies on its schedule all the way back to the mid-1960s. Sunday Night Movie ran until 2006, and was briefly revived earlier this year for a six week run at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic when full season runs of scripted series were shut down before completion.
