The network led last season, was the only network to increase its audience and is ahead this summer, even with a lineup filled mostly with repeats.

After a few failed attempts at riskier shows (musical Viva Laughlin, serialized murder mystery Harper's Island), CBS' return to its core focus on "procedural" dramas and sitcoms has paid off.

That's why viewers will find a new legal drama starring Julianna Margulies, a sitcom starring Jenna Elfman and a medical series on this fall's lineup.

"We're finally at a place where we've got the goods, and we're going to make a lot of noise," programming chief Nina Tassler promised critics here Monday.

But the network's biggest bets are time-slot switches for last season's top new hit, The Mentalist (moving to Thursdays at 10 ET/PT), and emerging hit comedy The Big Bang Theory (to Mondays at 9:30). Both "have the potential to become even bigger hits this year," Tassler says.

She has long regretted the network's lack of buzz but says the goal is "finding the balance between developing shows that get talked about and getting ratings." For CBS, those goals have often been mutually exclusive. "But first and foremost is getting ratings," and she's happy to take them.

Tassler calls NCIS "pretty much the most underrated success story on television," setting record ratings six years into its run. "It's crazy."

NCIS co-stars Pauley Perrette and Rocky Carroll will help launch spinoff NCIS: Los Angeles, due Sept. 22, by crossing over into a handful of episodes. (The shows will air back-to-back.)

Fans also can look for changes on the network's top drama, CSI. Steep ratings declines followed the departures of stars William Petersen and Jorja Fox, and Laurence Fishburne hasn't been as well received by viewers. "The challenge was introducing Fishburne in a way (that) he earned his place of authority on the team," Tassler says. Now, he's "much more settled in his role, he's in more of a leadership capacity ... (and) he's had a little bit of a wardrobe makeover." Fox's Sara Sidle also returns for the season's first five episodes.

And in daytime, a new version of game show Let's Make a Deal, hosted by Wayne Brady, is due Oct. 5. It replaces Guiding Light, which ends its 57-year TV run Sept. 18.