CBS announced the fall premiere dates for the 2007-2008 season on the annual Television Critics Association press tour. The fifth season of Cold Case premieres on Sunday, September 23, 2007 @ 9 p.m. No time slot changes this year -- that's a relief.

According to TVGuide.com, CBS will also be launching a new service called CBS Eye-lert. Viewers can sign up to receive notifications by text message or e-mail when shows are going to delayed because of e.g. football overtime. This is probably welcome news to all The Amazing Race, Cold Case and Shark (now taking the Sunday 10 p.m. spot) fans.

Season 4 premiered in the show's new timeslot at 9 p.m. against the ABC ratings monster Desperate Housewives. Previously Cold Case has often begun late on account of football running over, but this was the first time the two shows officially occupy the same timeslot.

So how did Cold Case do? Pretty great! Although DH obviously was the highest-rated show of the night (24.1 million viewers), CC was watched by an audience of 16.3 million. This is up by 3.2 million from the Season 3 finale and 2.6 million from the Season 2 premiere in 2005.

It's of course too early in the season to tell for sure, but based on those figures it looks like Desperate Housewives isn't competing for the same viewers, and the shift to a later time and being paired up with Without a Trace might be beneficial for Cold Case. (Without a Trace, by the way, was watched by 17.6 million viewers.)

Check out the new ratings chart on the forum.

CBS has announced the premiere dates of their shows this fall. Season 4 of Cold Case kicks off on Sunday, September 24 at 9 p.m. The season premiere episode has not been announced yet, but it's expected to be called "Rampage". Read more on the futon critic: http://www.thefutoncritic.com/pr.aspx?id=20060802cbs01 (Link removed because apparently TV.com doesn't allow external links in editor's blogs. )

Showfax.com has posted the first audition sides for a fourth season episode of Cold Case. The episode is titled Rampage but it's unsure whether it will actually be aired as the season premiere. Here's a list of the guest characters in the episode:

• Barry
• Cameron
• Davie @ 16
• Davie @ 27
• Dayton @ 16
• Dayton @ 27
• Girlfriend
• Mr. Coulter
• Mrs. Coulter
• Neal
• Prep #1
• SWAT
• Teen Girl
• Tina @ 16
• Tina @ 27
• Uniform #1
• Uniform #2
• Zack

Note that you can't actually read the sides unless you're a paid member of Showfax (which I'm not).

According to the futon critic, Season 4 is expected to kick off on September 24, 2006. Mark your calendars and remember the new time at 9 p.m. Sunday nights.