'NY' Lead 'Criminal Minds' Premieres Tonight

Right after CSI tonight, CBS will premiere the new procedural drama Criminal Minds.

The show revolves around an elite team of FBI profilers who analyze the country's most twisted criminal minds, anticipating their next moves before they strike again. Criminal Minds stars Mandy Patinkin, Thomas Gibson, and Shemar Moore.

The show will occupy the Without A Trace timeslot tonight, but will next week air in its regular slot on Wednesday nights at 9 p.m., or right before CSI: New York. CBS hopes the show will be able to retain some of the CSI viewers and gain and audience before it's put against the ratings monster Lost next week.

And while Criminal Minds has taken on the CSI formula, it might not benefit from CSI's success. According to various critics, the show will most likely suffer from the over-saturation of procedural dramas on television. David Bianculli, at the New York Daily News, wrote, "Criminal Minds, which generates almost no creative energy of its own, has the aura - or is it odor? - of being patched together from scraps of failed CBS dramas of the past."

Criminal Minds premieres tonight at 10 p.m. on CBS. Visit the show's official website to learn more about it.

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