CBS goes for star power, stability in new lineup

NEW YORK, May 18 (Reuters) CBS is drawing on Hollywood heavyweights next season in two dramas, one starring movie veteran James Woods as a prosecutor and another with Academy Award nominee Virginia Madsen and ''Goodfella'' Ray Liotta as career criminals.

Riding high as the most-watched of the major US networks, and with relatively few holes to fill in its prime-time lineup, CBS Corp yesterday took the wraps off a 2006-07 schedule with notably fewer changes than those announced earlier this week by NBC and ABC.

''We're taking some swings,'' Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said in unveiling a lineup with just four new series -- three dramas and a comedy. ''But we're taking swings in an environment of health.'' Hoping to book a bigger share of advance commercial sales for the upcoming season than its rivals will, CBS touted the relative stability and consistency of its fall slate.

''We are the most stable network,'' Moonves said. ''Nothing the competition did surprised us terribly.'' The network was showcasing the lineup in the annual ''upfront'' presentations, when the top US networks introduce their new prime-time shows and begin negotiations with advertisers for 70 percent to 80 percent of the season's commercial time.

With its powerhouse ''CSI'' franchise and such hits as ''Two and a Half Men,'' ''Survivor'' and ''Without a Trace,'' CBS is poised to finish the current season at No. 1 again in terms of total viewers.

But the network is set to slip from second place to third -- behind Fox and ABC -- in the race for viewers aged 18 to 49, the group advertisers most prize.

For the comparatively smaller crop of new series from CBS, the emphasis was on big names and big ideas.

Two of the three new dramas CBS is picking up feature well-known movie actors in sharply drawn character-driven stories.

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