CBS is experimenting with its own sense of space and time: The network’s drama “Einstein,” recently ordered to series and targeted for next season, will be instead be held until the following year.
That means the Matthew Gray Gubler starrer, which was first ordered as a pilot in August 2024, won’t actually hit the airwaves until two years later — during the 2026-2027 TV season. Per CBS, the reason is that there just wasn’t room for “Einstein” during the upcoming 2025-2026 frame.
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Eye execs are making their final decisions on next season’s schedule right now, and are set to unveil its fall 2025 plans at a press conference on Wednesday, May 7. It’s believed that CBS execs decided there wasn’t room on the schedule for “Einstein,” and that the show might benefit from a longer pre-production time.
Other new shows already ordered to series next season include “Blue Bloods” spinoff “Boston Blue,” “Fire Country” spinoff “Sheriff Country” and “FBI” spinoff “FBI:CIA.” Other scripted series set to return are “Elsbeth,” “FBI,” “Fire Country,” “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage,” “Ghosts,” “Matlock,” “NCIS,” “NCIS: Origins,” “NCIS: Sydney,” “The Neighborhood,” “Tracker” and “Watson.” Departing shows are “Blue Bloods,” “FB: International,” “FBI: Most Wanted,” “Poppa’s House” and “SWAT.”
It’s unclear what this delay might mean for “The Equalizer,” the last CBS scripted series still on the bubble.
The decision to delay is the latest example of a much less strident network development and programming schedule at broadcasters like CBS, which has been giving a longer runway to its series launches. (Last year, the network gave an early pickup to “Sheriff Country,” even though it wouldn’t air until the 2025-26 season.)
Also, during the most recent Hollywood strikes, several networks held back on scripted fare (particularly NBC) with the idea of strike-contingency fare. By waiting until 2026, CBS would indeed have “Einstein” in its arsenal in the chance there’s another production stoppage.
Based on a German format, “Einstein” is a drama following the brilliant but directionless great grandson of Albert Einstein, who works as a comfortably tenured professor until he runs into the law and is forced to help a local police detective solve cases.
Gubler plays Lewis Einstein, whose gift to help solve homicide cases may offer his life some purpose, alongside Rosa Salazar as Veronica “Ronni” Paris,” a sharp and disciplined detective for the New Jersey State Police.
“Einstein” is executive produced by Andy Breckman, Tariq Jalil, Rose Hughes, Rodrigo Herrera Ibarguengoytia, Laura Beetz and director Randy Zisk.
The original German “Einstein” started as a TV movie in 2015 starring Tom Beck (“Alarm for Cobra 11”) and from writers Martin Ritzenhoff and Matthias Dinter. Ritzenhoff and Dinter then turned it into a series through Zeitsprung Pictures; the show ran for three seasons and was distributed to over 100 territories.
An “Einstein” adaptation had been in the pipeline for years. Michael Reisz and Carol Mendelsohn tried one for NBC in 2018, and then Breckman and Zisk developed a version in 2019 for CBS, but that ultimately didn’t move forward. The Eye net tried again with a gender-swapped version in 2020 from Lauren Gussis and Corinne Brinkerhoff, but that too ultimately didn’t move forward.
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