CBS To Air Paramount Plus Original ‘Lawmen: Bass Reeves’

Lawmen: Bass Reeves
David Oyelowo in ‘Lawmen: Bass Reeves’ (Image credit: Paramount Global)

CBS will air the first two episodes of the Paramount Plus western series Lawmen: Bass Reeves. They will air back to back on Sunday, November 12. 

The show, with David Oyelowo as Reeves, one of the first Black U.S deputy marshals west of the Mississippi, debuted on Paramount Plus Sunday, November 5. Taylor Sheridan is behind it. 

CBS calls the show “the untold story of the most legendary lawman in the Old West.”

Chad Feehan created Lawmen: Bass Reeves. He is showrunner and executive producer. Lauren E. Banks, Demi Singleton, Forrest Goodluck, Barry Pepper, Grantham Coleman, Donald Sutherland and Dennis Quaid are also in the cast. 

“Despite arresting over 3,000 outlaws during the course of his career, the weight of the badge was heavy, and he wrestled with its moral and spiritual cost to his beloved family,” CBS adds. 

Lawmen: Bass Reeves is also executive produced by Sheridan, Oyelowo, David C. Glasser, Jessica Oyelowo, David Permut, Christina Alexandra Voros, Ron Burkle, Bob Yari and David Hutkin. The series is produced by MTV Entertainment Studios, 101 Studios, Sheridan’s Bosque Ranch Productions and Oyelowo’s Yoruba Saxon. 

Networks are finding creative ways to fill out their schedules with the strikes in Hollywood holding up the production of scripted programming. CBS also airs Paramount Network series Yellowstone and Paramount Plus series FBI True in primetime. 

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.