At the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour today, CBS announced that Under the Dome will premiere on Monday, June 24th at 10pm. Based on the Stephen King novel, the series comes from writer/executive producer Brian K. Vaughan (Y the Last Man, Lost), with King also executive producing. While Under the Dome doesn’t begin filming until next month, CBS looks to be very invested in it – revealing the first promo will be aired during the Super Bowl and showing us a video in which King and Vaughan spoke about the series, as we were shown production art.

Based on what was shown, it looks like Under the Dome is CBS’ answer to The Walking Dead, with its tale of how normal people try to cope in the wake of a bizarre crisis – here, an invisible dome that suddenly surrounds a town, cutting the residents off from everyone on the outside. As Vaughan put it, “It’s going to be bring out the best in some people and the worst in other people.”Jokes about the similarity to the story of The Simpsons Movie aside (King’s novel was being written at the same time as that film), the art we saw from Under the Dome was intense and outright gory – showing a cow sliced in two by the dome’s sudden appearance, and what happens when an airplane smashes into the dome, as King described how we’ll see the pilots point of view as “the nose [of the plane] starts to crumble”, before body parts begin falling to the ground. Not to mention the dome has some other odd effects, with Vaughan noting there’s “Electromagnetic potential to it. If you get too close to it, it’ll cause pacemakers to explode out of your body,” as we saw art of a man whose pacemaker is ripped out of his chest, with predictably dire results.Said King, “It’s very exciting to see the idea of taking the book and possibly expanding it. Because that’s what TV’s for. TV is an expansive medium. The novel only covers a very short period of time and the idea of a TV series is to extend it not just for a week or two weeks but for months.” King also was excited by Steven Spielberg’s involvement as a producer (the show comes from Amblin), remarking, “His view on American life and my viewpoint on American life are similar.”CBS president Nina Tassler said they saw Under the Dome -- which had been initially developed at Showtime -- as the “Opportunity to do a big summer event,” and that the high profile team – which also includes Lost’s Jack Bender as a producer/director and Neal Baer (ER, Law and Order: SVU) as showrunner alongside Vaughan -- would help them “make some noise.”Tassler said that storywise, “There will be a key piece of information the audience will have by the end of the summer,” but following Under the Dome’s 13-episode initial season, “We’d like to build it into a summer franchise.”