CBS Fall Preview for iPad introduces five new shows

If you got too wrapped up in all the “Two and a Half Men” shenanigans, you might not know that CBS has some new programming on its slate for the fall season, including the much-hyped “2 Broke Girls” and Michael Emerson’s return to TV in “Person of Interest.” To promote its new season, CBS has released CBS Fall Preview for iPad, your one-stop shop for info on those shows, plus “Unforgettable,” “How to Be a Gentleman” and “A Gifted Man.”

Presented by “NCIS” star Pauley Perrette, CBS Fall Preview offers previews, cast information and show tweets for each program. Perrette is bubbly and likeable enough in her show introductions, but the constant auto-play is grating — continuing even after you’ve navigated away from the home screen.

The majority of the app only runs in portrait mode, and the screen space used to play the video clips is small. Videos can be made full-screen and played in landscape mode, but if you use this feature, the app freezes upon completion of the clip. You won’t be able to tap any buttons, and the only fix is to force-quit the app and restart.

In addition to the show previews, CBS Fall Preview also includes a laughably easy memory match game featuring actor photos. Users who finish in less than two minutes can enter daily to win a flat-screen TV. There is a complete schedule of programming available, and users can set up calendar alerts for premiere dates, which mostly begin the week of Sept. 19.

I’ll refrain from making statements on how good I think these new shows will be, but I was disappointed that there’s little content here that isn’t available elsewhere. The “special” previews were not all that special. In fact, I found more show-related content on CBS’ website than in this app.

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