Will CBS still have 'Class'?

PASADENA, Calif. — Despite the fact that "The Class" was cut back from 22 episodes to 19, despite the fact that it's going to go off CBS's schedule in March, the network's chief programmer said the sitcom might be back for a second season.

I'm not at all sure I believe her, but I'll be thrilled if it's true.

"The Class" is the best new sitcom of the year. The sitcom, about a group of former third-grade classmates who are now adults, has been consistently funny and entertaining.

It has also struggled to find an audience.

"I think the show has gone through some exciting, interesting changes," said CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler. "We're focusing more on the romance between the three couples."

And instead of doing as many parallel story lines in which some characters do not interact with others, the show is looking more like "Friends," with everyone getting together.

"It's been a different form. They've tried different things, so I think we're watching it very closely," Tassler said.

She disagreed with the suggestion that the problem with "The Class" might be, at least in part, that the show is sort of serialized, although she didn't entirely discount it.

"What we learned with 'The Class' is, obviously, as you are serialized, you have to make your adjustments and tweaks with the show while that train is moving," Tassler said. "You can't sort of reorder episodes."

Networks frequently air shows out of sequence, wanting to put the best episodes on early in the run to build an audience and holding weaker episodes for after a show establishes itself.

"We've seen improvement and some improvement with the numbers as well," Tassler said. "We're cautiously optimistic."

I'm not at all sure I believe her, but I'll be thrilled if it's true.

AMONG THE SHOWS CBS has in development is the serial "Swingtown." When I heard the title, I was thinking something in an industrial city. I was wrong.

It's "a show set in 1976 about open marriage," Tassler said.

Well, she may be right when she said she sees it as a show that people are going to be talking about.

Set in a Chicago cul-de-sac, it's about three different couples. One is "firmly ensconced in the world of swinging." Another is "just sort of beginning to look at their marriage and explore different possibilities, as it were." And the third couple is "appalled at the prospect of getting involved in that at all."

OK. ...