Sorry Agatha! CBS usually saves these for sweeps week because of the high ratings that they always get. Our TS stomped all over Dancing with the Stars last year, one of ABC's most popular shows! Very Happy But it would be GREAT if they did air No Remorse this fall...a dream come true for me!
Yes, the Jesse Stone movies are clearly scheduled for broadcast during sweeps, but there are four sweeps a year. "Sweeps" last for a whole month, not just a week, and the months are February, May, and November. July is also a sweeps month, but because it falls in the summer, when the networks traditionally haven't had the normal amount of viewers, they don't really try all that hard during that period. This year, because of concerns with the HD transition in February, sweeps month was in March. Here's a Slate article which is titled
"How Does Sweeps Week Work?" -- but then goes on to explain that it's not just a week, but four weeks, during four months out of every year.
So, having explained that, it's quite possible that the next Jesse Stone movie could perhaps air in November. IMDB describes the next movie as "in filming", but it's quite possible that the movie could be finished with post-production (that's editing, sound track, special effects, etc.) in time to air by November. IIRC, Thin Ice was finished last year, and CBS sat on it for about half a year before airing it.
Thin Ice: March 2009
Sea Change: May 2007
Death In Paradise: April 2006
Night Passages: January 2006
Stone Cold: February 2005
Looking at the air dates, it's difficult to see any pattern, other than there seems to be about an average of one Jesse Stone movie per year. BUT there is one year when there were two that aired, and one year when there was no Jesse Stone movie. So, there's perhaps a chance that No Remorse might air this year. (Although there's really no way to read the tea leaves on this, and perhaps the networks will be content to make this an annual event.)
I think that the network's decision when to air the next Jesse Stone movie is at least partly based on whatever else the network has available to air that they think could boost viewership, and also on when they think that the virtually automatic ratings success will help them with getting advertisers.
I also remember in one of the recent interviews with Tom Selleck, he remarked that the network was interested in some sort of more frequent appearance of the Jesse Stone character, but Selleck dismissed that as something he's not that interested in, and that he prefers this to be an occasional movie series.
I must say, from a personal standpoint, it's clear that these movies are carefully written, and very well produced, and made with special care and attention. This is what makes them a standout from the usual network fare. They don't look like most network tv movies, and they certainly don't look like most television shows. The pace of the story telling is more stately, and the photography is quite poetic. The hurly-burly sausage-factory of grinding out a weekly episodic show would adversely affect the quality of what we've come to expect. All things considered, I'll gladly settle for a once a year event.
What I find somewhat amazing is that even though these movies are unlike 90% of what we see on television (and I'm including even other critically acclaimed shows), they are nonetheless successful in the ratings. There are no slam bang action sequences, no stunt casting, no grabbed-from-the-headlines topics, no blood and gore fests, and no wild-roller-coaster-ride plot twists. 15 or so MILLION people tuned in to see this last Jesse Stone movie, and this is quite an achievement in this day and age of fragmented audiences, and niche network shows.