Greg Berlanti Drama ‘The Red Line’ Premieres on CBS April 28

Event series The Red Line, from Greg Berlanti and Ava DuVernay, begins on CBS April 28. The series follows three different Chicago families connected by a tragedy. Noah Wyle stars.

Featuring eight episodes, The Red Line will air across four Sundays.

The Red Line is a serialized drama with compelling characters and provocative themes that we expect viewers will want to watch more than one hour per week, so we wanted to eventize it and try something unique with two-hour blocks over four weeks,” said Noriko Kelley, executive VP, program planning & scheduling, CBS Entertainment. “Sundays have always been a night of prestige programming for the network, and 60 Minutes provides the perfect lead-in for this special series.”

Also on CBS, military legal drama The Code starts April 9. It is a drama about the military’s brightest minds who take on our country’s toughest legal challenges, inside the courtroom and out, “in the only law office in the world where every attorney is trained as a prosecutor, a defense lawyer, an investigator – and a Marine,” in CBS’ words.

After its premiere, The Code shifts to Mondays starting April 15.

“Giving The Code a special premiere on Tuesday, the night after the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship plus the powerful lead-in of NCIS, provides two strong promotional platforms,” said Kelley. “When it moves to its regular slot on Mondays at 9:00, it will pair well with Bull to form a compatible two hours of high-quality legal dramas.”

Nearer term, Ransom, about a crisis and hostage negotiator and his team, starts season three Feb. 16.

The season premieres of Elementary and Instinct will be announced by CBS later. 

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.