CBS Schedule Changes Prompt Sunday Movie Nights Amid Shortened TV Season

Since CBS' Sunday night primetime shows will finish up their seasons early due to the coronavirus [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Since CBS' Sunday night primetime shows will finish up their seasons early due to the coronavirus shutdowns, the network announced plans to air five movies next month to end each weekend. The movies are all culled from the Paramount Pictures library and are audience favorites, including the two best Indiana Jones films and the Best Picture Oscar-winners Forrest Gump and Titanic. The "Sunday Night At The Movies" line-up kicks off on Sunday, May 3 with Raiders of the Lost Ark.

By the time the "Sunday Night At The Movies" block begins, God Friended Me, NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: New Orleans will have all finished their seasons. The shows ended production early last month due to the coronavirus pandemic. God Friended Me airs at 8 p.m. ET on Sundays and is now in its second season. NCIS: Los Angeles follows at 9 p.m. ET and is nearing the end of Season 11. NCIS: New Orleans ends the night at 10 p.m. ET and is in its sixth season.

All five movies CBS will air in May were released by Paramount Pictures. The two companies share the same parent company, ViacomCBS. The movies slated to air are Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Titanic (1997), Forrest Gump (1994) and Mission: Impossible (1996). Scroll on for a look at each movie.

CBS and Sunday Night Movies

CBS has a history of airing movies on Sunday nights, although they used to be original made-for-TV movies. The original CBS Sunday Movie programming ran from 1979 to 2006. CBS was the last remaining major network to devote its Sunday night line-up to movies. Back in 2006, the networks said the made-for-TV movies were becoming too costly to produce. CBS' movies were also earning lower ratings at the end of its run, losing out to ABC's Desperate Housewives.

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May 3: Raiders of the Lost Ark - 8 p.m. ET

Raiders of the Lost Ark kicks off the series. Released in 1981, the film introduces audiences to the most famous fictional archaeologist of them all, Indiana Jones, produced by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Indy (Harrison Ford) is joined by Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) to track down the Ark of the Covenant and keep it out of the hands of Nazis. Hopefully, snakes don't get in the way.

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May 10: Forrest Gump - 8 p.m. ET

Unlike Marty McFly, Forrest Gump does not need a time machine to travel through important periods of history. Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis and screenwriter Eric Roth loosely adapted Winston Groom's Forrest Gump in 1994, and won Oscars for their efforts. The film stars Tom Hanks in the title role and earned the Best Actor Oscar just a year after winning for Philadelphia.

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May 17: Mission: Impossible - 8 p.m. ET

Although Brian De Palma's Mission: Impossible is the only film among the five without a single Oscar nomination, the movie is still an exciting two-hour action movie thanks to Tom Cruise's first go-round as IMF agent Ethan Hunt. If you've only seen the more recent M:I movies, you owe it to yourself to check out where it all started.

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May 24: Titanic - 7 p.m. ET

Your heart will go on... and on and on during Titanic, James Cameron's monumental film about the sinking of the famous ship. After it's all over, families around the country will start arguing about whether Rose (Kate Winslet) could have let Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) fit on the floating door at the end. Titanic won 11 out of 14 Oscars it was nominated for and was the highest-grossing film of all time until Cameron's Avatar broke the record.

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May 31: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - 8 p.m. ET

Indiana Jones wraps up the movie lineup with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The film goes back to the fun of Raiders, and introduces Indy's father, Henry Jones Sr., played by the great Sean Connery. Like Raiders, Indy and his friends have to keep an artifact from falling into the hands of the Nazis. This time, it is the Holy Grail. Remember to choose wisely.

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