Stephen King’s ‘Under the Dome’ Coming To CBS

Don’t look now, but even CBS is getting into the big-budget, serialized, post-apocalyptic drama game. Starting next summer, the network best known for brightly-colored police procedurals where good guys always get their man because the bad guys confess after like 20 seconds of interrogation will begin airing Under the Dome, based on a novel by Steven King and produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television.

Based on King’s bestselling novel, Under the Dome is the story of a small New England town that’s suddenly and inexplicably sealed off from the rest of the world by an enormous transparent dome. The town’s residents need to survive the deteriorating post-apocalyptic conditions while searching for answers to what this barrier is, where it came from, and how to make it go away. [...]

The series version was originally developed at Showtime. But in an unusual move, the ambitious project jumped from a cable network’s slate to the major broadcaster. It’s also a rather unique title for CBS, since the network has been traditionally more wary about betting on serialized dramas than its rivals. But with AMC’s The Walking Dead and NBC’s Revolution, apocalyptic serialized dramas have been delivering large numbers lately. [EW]

Okay, three things:

1) Simpsons did it.

2) It’s about time someone greenlights a show called It Is the Future and Everything Is Awesome, where impossibly attractive people fly Hoverboards up-and-down ice cream tree lined streets and download music straight to their brain using the free WiFi provided by their utopian town. No zombies, no strange power outages, no giant domes falling from the sky, none of it. Basically Willy Wonka meets Back to the Future meets The Jetsons meets Baywatch. I am available to executive produce.

3) Numbers one and two aside, I fully support broadcast networks putting money and resources into serialized dramas. For the last few years they have been ceding a lot of ground in that war to cable, with networks like AMC and FX whupping them in critical acclaim and, lately, the ratings. It’s nice to see them at least trying, instead of rolling out a dozen more reality shows and crime-of-the-week filler. I mean, I have no idea if Under the Dome will be any good (CBS still has lots of time to CBS all over it), but at least this sounds a little more promising than NCIS: Dubuque, you know?