CBS huh? S o this is like Hannibal for 80 year olds?
CBS doesn't make shows for people outside of the 18 to 49 demographic, because there's no money in it. They do get watched a lot by people older than that, partly because older people are more likely to watch broadcast, but relatively speaking they've done well in the demo, although broadcast in general is losing viewers as they go to streaming.
I've thought about why CBS has survived without doing much to adapt to older generations moving out of the demo, and my theory has to do with indie rock. When I first heard stuff like The Decemberists, I thought it was tame and really pretty boring, and the music videos had a dull brownish quality to them, and those qualities were fairly niche but then worked their way into popular culture. I'm not saying I don't like anything at all that's indie rock, but after generations of parents worrying about their kids listening to "devil music", here was a situation where parents might be confused and alienated by their kids listening to something completely tame and "harmless", and teens might be embarrassed by their parents listening to Marilyn Manson or whatever.
So maybe young people who've grown up in this culture actually like CBS' more lackadaisical nature and dusty aesthetic, and CBS jumped from courting people who've since aged out of the demo to making the same stuff for younger generations, while it's more the generations in the middle who look at CBS dramas and think, "Why does this look like something I might find in my grandparents' attic?"
Anyway, Hannibal did not get very good ratings. Maybe it was too much for most viewers. I know I don't like it, but that doesn't mean I want the opposite extreme where the tone of the show (if not the subject matter) is watered down. I want something equivalent to the better movies, which I'd be more likely to get on, say, Fox (looking at broadcast) than on CBS. Even if this is NCIS 2.0, though, it could still do better than Hannibal no matter how many fans respond to it with "Save Hannibal" on Twitter. The core Hannibal Lecter fanbase might be split between those who are devoted to the Fuller show and those who aren't but still don't want the property to become too mild-mannered, but I think it's how the more casual audience responds that'll really make the difference.