CBS fans on the East Coast looking to enjoy their usual favorite Friday night dramas are going to be thrown for a bit of a loop tonight because the network’s Friday night dramas will all be airing delayed on April 10. CBS will be airing special news coverage to mark the return of the Artemis II from its 10-day trip around the moon, which will delay the originally scheduled new episodes of Sheriff Country, Fire Country, and Boston Blue.
As confirmed by Deadline, CBS is airing Artemis II Return To Earth, a live one-hour special marking the return of Artemis II from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. ET. This special report will feature reports from New York, Houston, Washington, D.C., and San Diego featuring a mix of CBS News correspondents and special guests, including astronauts Suni Williams and Nick Hague and Lt. Col. Dave Mahan.
Due to this last-minute one-hour special report, CBS is going to have to push back its entire Friday night lineup, which means new episodes of Sheriff Country, Fire Country, and Boston Blue will all air 30 minutes later than usual. This means fans of Boston Blue, in particular, are in for a long night, as the episode will wrap much later in the night than normal. Here is the planned schedule for the night:
- 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. - CBS News Special Report: Artemis II Return To Earth,
- 8:30 - 9:30 p.m. - Sheriff County
- 9:30 - 10:30 p.m. - Fire Country
- 10:30 - 11:30 p.m. - Boston Blue
As is often the case with special news coverage, this scheduling adjustment will only impact the fans on the East Coast. Sheriff Country, Fire Country, and Boston Blue will all air at their regularly scheduled times on the West Coast, as CBS's special news report coverage will air at 4:30 p.m. PT.
The scheduling change for tonight isn't too bad for Sheriff Country and Fire Country fans, but Boston Blue fans will certainly feel the impact. This delay means the new episode of Boston Blue won't wrap until 11:30 p.m. ET, which is certainly going to make for an unexpectedly long night. In fact, that delay might lead many fans to choose to wait until the weekend to watch the episode on Paramount+ instead of staying up even later than normal to catch the episode.
While it's certainly not ideal for the shows to be airing 30 minutes later than normal, at least we're still getting new episodes of the three shows on April 10. After all, CBS could have just as easily chosen to push the shows back and send them into reruns for the special report instead.