It’s late January, time when the broadcast networks typically kick off pilot season with their first pilot orders targeting the upcoming fall. Not CBS, which will not be picking pilots in the traditional window; instead the network has five scripted series already on tap for next season and a potential Fire Country spinoff in the works.

There has been nothing typical about the past couple of years between the pandemic and the double Hollywood strike, which disrupted the TV development cycle. Still, while networks like ABC and Fox had signaled a move toward year-round development before the pandemic, CBS had stuck closely to tradition, so many thought the network would eventually revert to its old ways.

That didn’t happen. In a major leadership change at CBS, Amy Reisenbach, the network’s head of current programming of 5.5 years, was named Entertainment President in November 2022. Just a couple of months later,...