LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- "We are officially retiring the phrase 'midseason,'" Nina Tassler (Chairman, CBS Entertainment) told reporters this morning during CBS's pre-upfront conference call. "We no longer have midseason. We have summer, we have fall, we have spring and we roll out our big shows all year long. It's a strategy that's something we've been talking about over the past couple of years and obviously last year with the success of '[Under the] Dome' and watching 'Extant' this summer as well, I think we finally made good on that promise."

Case in point: summer entry "Under the Dome" was TV's most-watched new show of the past year, topping even "The Blacklist." (NBC's newcomer however the top draw among adults 18-49.) To that end, CBS will have 90 hours of original programming this summer, including a sophomore run of "Dome."

Other topics from the conference:

-- As mentioned in the release, this will be "Two and a Half Men's" final season. "Chuck Lorre is creating a season-long event so I think we did very well last year with announcing the final season of 'How I Met Your Mother,'" Tassler said. Adding, "Chuck is very psyched about this, he's got some great ideas in store, some very big surprises and we know that fans and we know that audiences respond to that and that should really give us a nice boost when we launch ['The McCarthys']."

-- On the decision not to pick up its comedy pilot "How I Met Your Dad": "First of all, to say we love ['How I Met Your Mother'] and we love these producers is an understatement. We really do. They are beloved. And we have an extraordinary relationship with them. There things on the pilot, there were elements of the pilot that didn't work out. We tried to reach out and engage them in terms of a conversation about redoing the pilot. You know, that's happening right now. And sometimes you run into these kinds of issues, you hope that they can resolve themselves within a particular timeframe. They haven't and they have not yet resolved themselves. We have an extraordinary track record of redoing pilots. 'The Big Bang' was a redo. 'NUMB3RS,' lest we forget, was also a redone pilot and 'The McCarthys' we shot last year. So I'm heartsick. We loved this brand. It's a very important show and we love the producers but it didn't work out."

-- On whether "CSI: Cyber" is designed as a replacement for its parent series, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation": "We believe in the show and we think that the schedule could certainly at some later date support both of those shows being on the air."

-- And finally, Tassler confirmed they're committed - for the moment - to just one more cycle of its Friday-bound reality franchise "The Amazing Race."