TiVo, CBS team up for early look at 'The Class'

CBS is giving TiVo subscribers a first look at its new sitcom, The Class, before it airs on the network. The comedy is about a group of former third grade classmates who reunite, and it stars the late John Ritter's son, Jason. The deal also includes exclusive previews of other shows, including Jericho, Smith and Shark. The New York Times reports that this is the first time TiVo has teamed up with a network to offer previews of shows (we get movie previews all the time). The Class should appear on 4.4 million TiVos about one week before its air date of Sept. 18.

On top of its TiVo partnership, CBS also teamed up with Bluetooth to offer users free download promos of The Class, Jericho, Shark, Smith, and CSI. It is playing previews of The Class and Shark on 40,000 American Airlines flights this month and will offer streaming video of Jericho on Yahoo! video.