On April 22, CBS picked up its hourlong comedic crime drama procedural pilot Einstein, headlined by Criminal Minds alum Matthew Gray Gubler, to series for the 2025-26 season. A week later, the show was pushed to the following 2026-27 season.
During the unveiling of CBS’ 2025-26 schedule Wednesday, the network’s Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach shed light on what happened between April 22 and April 29, when the Einstein delay was announced, resulting in the departure of female lead Rosa Salazar. The network also released a first-look image of Gubler as the title character, which you can see above.
“At one point, Einstein was on the schedule,” she said. “But then it just occurred to us that we had an opportunity with this show. We’ve had such great results with longterm development. [At last year’s upfront press event], we announced that we were picking up Sheriff Country to series [for 2025-26]. They start production next week, we have been promoting the show for months, we have 12 scripts banked, and we have a ton of efficiencies for production, scheduling, etc.”
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Added Reisenbach, “We felt like Einstein could really benefit from this path, even if it means changing course. We are not afraid to do that when it means that we are setting the show up for its best chances of success.”
Einstein, an adaptation of a German format by Monk creator Andy Breckman, was CBS’ only standalone drama pilot this season. As Deadline has reported, the pilot was a favorite internally and well received, hitting CBS’ sweet spot of procedural drama with humor and a popular CBS star as the lead.
“This show has a really high mix of comedy and procedure and we really felt that they could benefit from more writing time,” Reisenbach said. “They are currently staffing and the writers room will be opening shortly.”
During the presentation, Reisenbach noted that “our schedule is jam-packed” and that “we were really fortunate to have had a strong development season and a lot of options for 25-26.”
In the end, the network went with four new drama series for next season, the aforementioned Sheriff Country and new offshoots from Blue Bloods in Boston Blue starring Donnie Wahlberg; from FBI in CIA starring Tom Ellis; and from Yellowstone in Y: Marshals, starring Luke Grimes.
None of them had done a pilot — standalone or backdoor — and while Boston Blue was picked up based off a script in early January, CIA and Marshals were recent series orders, and it’s unclear whether any has a final pilot script.
Reisenbach was asked by Deadline why the network opted to go with series like CIA and Marshals off of concept for next season and hold back the one that is more fully-fledged, Einstein, an extra year.
“Shows like [CIA and Marshals] have a real infrastructure set up from 101 Productions and Taylor Sheridan [for Marshals] or the Dick Wolf world [for CIA] that does give them a leg up.”
The reason for Einstein’s push were both show-specific and schedule-specific, she said.
“We just felt it would benefit from additional writing time, additional production time, and we want to put out a schedule that creates the best flow that we think would be the best competitive, and ultimately this is what we came to,” Reisenbach said.
She referenced the new longterm development model CBS adopted more than a year ago.
“We’ve really leaned into the idea of longterm development, year-round development, and trying new ways to get shows on the air,” Reisenbach said. “There is no one path for every show.”
A drama with comedic undertones based on the German series of the same name, Einstein comes from the Monk team of creator/executive producer Breckman and director/executive producer Randy Zisk.
In it, brilliant but directionless, the great grandson of Albert Einstein (Gubler) spends his days as a comfortably tenured professor until his bad-boy antics land him in trouble with the law and he is pressed into service helping a local police detective — the role that is now vacant after Salazar’s departure — solve her most puzzling cases.
Breckman, who wrote the Einstein pilot, and Zisk, who directed it, executive produce alongside Intrigue’s Tariq Jalil; and Rose Hughes, Rodrigo Herrera Ibarguengoytia and Laura Beetz for Seven One Studios International. Gubler is a producer.