Pilot Preview: CBS Making ‘The Ex List,’ But Don’t Check It Twice

Title: The Ex List

Stars: Elizabeth Reaser (Grey’s Anatomy), Alexandra Breckenridge (Dirt), Adam Rothenberg (Mad Money)

Network: CBS, Fridays at 9 p.m.

The pitch: On a visit to a psychic, florist Bella Bloom learns that she has already dated — and discarded — her future husband. But if she doesn’t find him again within a year, she’ll be alone forever!

Pilot report: In what looks like a pattern for every single episode of this show, Bella meets up with an old flame, in this case a rocker. She had blown him off years before but now wants him back. He plays hard to get, then comes on too strong. She tries to ditch him, but then realizes she loves him! Then she and all her friends go see his band and he humiliates her with a bad song called “Revenge.” She’s sort of upset, but when she calls someone about a lost cat, the owner turns out to be a guy she went to high school with. “Shut! Up!” Bella says to her old high-school boyfriend. We agree!

Representative dialogue:

Bella: I think he’s changed!

Auggie: Yeah, he’s changed into someone who doesn’t like you anymore.

Breakout star: The psychic, Anne Nahabedian. She’s the most reasonable character on the show.

Worth a season pass? No. Bella’s one-liner-spouting friends are pretty clever, but the whole show feels like a sitcom forced to be a grown-up, hour-long dramedy. Maybe that’s because My Name Is Earl and How I Met Your Mother — shows that involve lists and a series of failed relationships, respectively — are already on television. Unless you too will be alone for the rest of your life, you won’t be home to watch Ex List in its Friday-night time slot anyway.
—Aileen Gallagher