Michael Weatherly has been a big name in TV news over the past couple of months, ever since he announcement that he would be leaving NCIS after 13 years in the role of Tony DiNozzo. Luckily for CBS viewers who had gotten used to seeing Weatherly in primetime for an hour each week, Michael Weatherly quickly nabbed a new project for his post-NCIS career: a new show called Bull. Now, CBS has revealed when Weatherly's new drama will premiere. We can expect to see Bull hit the airwaves on Tuesday, September 20 at 9 p.m. ET.
Bull will be a distinctly different show from NCIS, but Michael Weatherly isn't straying too far from the franchise. His new time slot falls between NCIS at 8 p.m. ET and NCIS: New Orleans at 10 p.m. ET, both of which have their season premieres on September 20, as well. The time slot should be great for Bull to hook former NCIS fans into at least the premiere. It will ultimately go up against half-hour sitcoms Fresh Off the Boat and The Real O'Neals on ABC, new series This Is Us on NBC, Scream Queens on Fox, and new series No Tomorrow on The CW.
Bull sounds like it will be very unlike all the other shows in the Tuesday 9 p.m. slot, so the folks at CBS probably won't have to worry too much about competition within the genre for Bull. Somehow I don't think that executives are losing sleep over Bull losing viewers to Scream Queens and No Tomorrow.
CBS actually put in the series order for Bull shortly before Michael Weatherly's final episode on NCIS aired. Weatherly fans didn't have to worry about whether or not he'd be back on our screens in the near future. He landed the leading role while NCIS was still on the air, which pretty much meant that CBS had faith that he could carry a new show on primetime.
The show will follow the stories of Dr. Jason Bull, who is a trial consultant who uses his unique abilities as an expert of psychology to figure out what makes individual jurors tick when it comes to certain court cases. Proceeding on the knowledge that it only takes one juror with influence over others to determine the verdict, Dr. Bull advises lawyers and defendants on how to behave and even dress to win over juries. You can check out the first trailer, below.
Dr. Bull is based on the career of none other than Dr. Phil McGraw from his days before he became a successful talk show host. Dr. Phil is a contributor to Bull, so we can expect that there will be some degree of accuracy to the plots of the new show.
We're still several months away from seeing the full first episode of Bull, but getting a premiere date on CBS should help pass the time a little bit. At least we know when the end of the wait is coming.
