The coveted post-Super Bowl spot has been filled for 2013. It's customary for whatever network is hosting the Super Bowl to air some lead-out programming, which benefits from the massive viewership of the big football game. Last year, NBC aired The Voice after the Super Bowl. And Glee, Undercover Boss, The Office and House are among the recent programs to air post-Super Bowl and come 2013, Elementary joins that list.
CBS will air Super Bowl XLVII on Sunday, February 3, after which Elementary will be broadcast (approximately 10:00 p.m. EST). CBS seems to be developing a pattern of alternating between reality and scripted shows for their Super Bowl lead-out programming. The last time they aired the Super Bowl (2010), they showed Undercover Boss afterward. And the time before that (2007) it was Criminal Minds. Before that (2004) they aired Survivor: All Stars.
Elementary is a modern-day take on Arthur Conan Doyle's beloved character Sherlock Holmes, played by Jonny Lee Miller. In the series, Holmes works as a detective in New York City, aided by his sober companion Dr. Joan Watson, played by Lucy Liu. I'll admit, I had reservations about CBS taking on Sherlock Holmes when the British series Sherlock was doing it so well already, but as a weekly mystery series, Elementary is entertaining and structurally different enough from Sherlock that it stands on its own. It's also a great kind of series to air after the Super Bowl because, while there is some character development from what I've seen, the show includes a mystery-of-the-week format that might allow newbies to get on board with it without a lot of prior knowledge of the characters.
