Notwithstanding all of the speculation about what TAR 31 will or won't be, or the casting, there's another matter to cause concern long term.
It's been gradual over these past 17 years, but except for casting honcho Lynne Spillman and CBS CEO Les Moonves, none of the CBS executives who originally greenlighted TAR back in 2000 remain at CBS. So their newer successors are not necessarily as invested in TAR as that group was.
And it gets more precarious because of an ongoing dispute between CBS current management and board of directors and the controlling shareholder, NAI (the Redstone family, who also control Viacom). There's a court hearing TODAY on a preliminary injunction to prevent the Redstones from interfereing with a proposed special dividend that would dilute the Redstones' controlling interest to a minority position and likely preventing a forced merger with Viacom. If the injunction isn't issued, it could lead to the removal of the management (Moonves) and the board of directors, and a new management might have a totally different view of all current CBS programming.
Something to be aware of as it could impact TAR 31 and the long=term survival of TAR