Two new shows will grace viewer screens this weekend: “Battle Creek” on CBS, helmed by seasoned TV hit makers Vince Gilligan (“Breaking Bad”) and David Shore (“House”) and “Last Man on Earth” on Fox. Both programs have a common thread – protagonists who find themselves in fish-out-of-water circumstances.

Josh Duhamel stars as handsome, charismatic Special Agent Milton Chamberlain in “Battle Creek,” who establishes an FBI field office at the police station in Battle Creek, Mich. Chamberlain employs a cutting-edge approach to solving crime, at stark odds with a police department unable to afford basic necessities to arm its officers. The show derives its tension from Chamberlain’s clashes with hard-bitten veteran detective (Dean Winters, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit).

Duhamel — who appeared on the series “Las Vegas” and the “Transformers” movies — intimates that a cop series set in a small town can be equally as complex and compelling as one set in NYC, LA or Miami.

“A lot of really interesting stories could come out of a place that doesn’t necessarily have all these big glamorous crimes. It’s a lot of stuff. It’s the minutiae of the people and the situations that the people get in,” says Duhamel.

Elsewhere on the dial, SNL alum Will Forte has to navigate a world emptied due to an apocalyptic virus in the Fox’s comedy series “Last Man on Earth.”

“It’s such a great area for comedy because I love comedy where there’s a lot of tension and there’s this idea seems to be even though it’s very far-fetched, it seems very relatable, because I think everybody has thought, ‘What would you do if you were the last person on Earth?’ So even though it’s a situation you know, it’s oddly relatable in that way. It’s such a wonderful, tense situation just inherent to the idea,” says Forte.

Although Forte is mostly on the high wire alone in the series, he will have as much opportunity to play comic situations as if he were opposite other actors. There actually will be a few other actors on the show, but producers are keeping mum on what roles they will play. Those looking for zombies will unfortunately be disappointed.