UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — If CBS is worried about life after "Everybody Loves Raymond" ends its run in May, it doesn't show. While NBC has been greatly harmed by the loss of "Friends" and "Frasier" a year ago, CBS chief executive Les Moonves doesn't see the same thing happening to his network.
"We have 'Two and a Half Men.' They didn't," Moonves said.
He called the performance of that sitcom "phenomenal."
"It's exactly how you envision moving a show in to be your clean-up hitter. . . . For two years, it's grown. It's grown immensely this year. A lot of weeks, it's beating 'Raymond' in 18-49 and it's clearly ready to take over the (8) o'clock mantle."
And "Raymond" may not completely disappear — there's still the idea of a spin-off series centering on Brad Garrett's character, Robert.
"We're still talking," Moonves said. "It's possible. It's still in the discussion stages. It's still relatively early for that, but it's possible."
Who he's discussing this with, we're not quite sure. Garrett says it's not him. "I will tell you, I have not been approached to do one," he said.
"Supposedly, I guess, all the rumors and the rumblings — I'm getting it secondhand — supposedly there is a group of people out there talking about it, but they aren't talking to me. So what I think is they're probably looking for a Brad Garrett type."
"There's so many of those," joked "Raymond" executive producer Phil Rosenthal.
"They're looking for Bull from 'Night Court,' " Ray Romano interjected.
Garrett does, however, sound like he might do a spin-off if he's asked.
"I love the character. I'm open to it," he said. "This show is obviously about the writing. Over the last nine years, I've learned how crucial that is."
Which is pretty much the same answer Monica Horan, who plays Amy, Robert's wife, and is Rosenthal's real-life wife, gave to the question of a possible successor series.
"If I get to work with my husband and my husband. If the writers would be there. If Phil would be involved. If all the stars aligned, yes," Horan said.
But Rosenthal reiterated that he's not interested in writing the spin-off. He didn't rule out some sort of consulting on the proposed series, but, like everything else, that's "very, very vague at this point," as Garrett put it.
And it may not clear up any time soon. Moonves himself said it might be May 19 — the day the network announces its fall schedule — before a spin-off is nailed down.
"If we have a deal in place, it literally could be as late as that," the exec said.
"There's a lot of things that would have to fall into place," Garrett said.
Well, there's always "Two and a Half Men."
THE OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARY series "American Experience" (8 p.m., Ch. 7) has never profiled a non-American before. So why choose Fidel Castro as the first?
"I think there's little doubt that if you were to name one figure who's had an impact on American history over nearly half a century, it's Fidel Castro," said executive producer Mark Samels. "It's also a tremendous story. It's a story that has both a political dimension and a personal dimension that, frankly, we don't see very often."
As is the case with "Experience," this profile takes an even-handed view of its subject — which means that, love Castro or hate him, you'll find something to love and hate in the two-hour program.
"I think that if you have seen Fidel Castro portrayed as a Robin Hood that was driven into the arms of the Soviet Union by the United States' intransigence on Cuba and unwillingness to accept Cuban nationalism and independence, this film will portray Castro as a worse man than he's been portrayed," said writer/director/producer Adriana Bosch. "If you think that he's a murderer that imposed his rule on a Cuba that wasn't really ready or wanting some of the changes he was bringing forth, then this film portrays him as a better man than he's been portrayed."
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com