No wonder ABC slotted "The Forgotten" at 10 p.m. Tuesday: It's the time slot occupied last season by "Without a Trace" on CBS -- and "The Forgotten" is basically a mashup of "Without a Trace" and "Cold Case."

Christian Slater stars as Alex Donovan, a former Chicago cop who now leads a group of volunteers who try to put a name to unidentified murder victims after the police have exhausted all leads and before they can be buried in a potter's field.

"It's about her story," Alex says of the anonymous victim in tonight's premiere, "because without who is it ..."

"There's no whodunit, we know," says Candace (Michelle Borth), one of the volunteer sleuths (in a particularly sloppy bit of exposition).

Others in the research group include a high school science teacher (Heather Stephens), a phone company employee (Bob Stephenson) and an aspiring artist (Anthony Carrigan, a 2006 Carnegie Mellon University grad). They work in conjunction with the police department, primarily with Alex's former protege, Detective Russell (Rochelle Aytes).

In addition to the TV shows "The Forgotten" (10 tonight, WTAE-TV) resembles, the premiere also has a touch of the novel "The Lovely Bones," as the victim offers occasional voiceover narration from the grave.

Created by Mark Friedman and executive produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, who's also responsible for "Cold Case" and "Without a Trace," "The Forgotten" is just another run-of-the-mill crime procedural. Nothing more, nothing less.