Blood, guts and forensics may be CBS’ bread and butter these days, but the network has never seen anything quite like “Dexter.”

Lacking new episodes of their own series due to the recently settled writers’ strike, the broadcast network is airing the first season of sister network Showtime’s critically lauded but little seen procedural drama. Based on the novels by Jeff Lindsay, “Dexter” is about a charming serial killer whose victims are other serial killers.

During the day, Dexter Morgan (played by Michael C. Hall) moonlights as an innocuous Miami P.D. blood spatter analyst.

But by night, he’s in full vigilante mode, surprising his future victims and dragging them off to remote locations where he kills them, neatly packing their body parts into garbage bags before dumping them into the ocean.

Picking up the show is a bold move for CBS, since it marks the first time that a series made for premium cable is being aired on a broadcast network. To fit “Dexter” into its schedule, CBS trimmed the 55-minute-long episodes by about 10 minutes to add commercial breaks, eliminate nude scenes and the more graphically violent deaths there aren’t as many as you’d think and, sadly, tone down the characters’ humorously profane language.

This means that Sergeant James Doakes (Erik King), the only person who sees through co-worker Dexter’s wide-eyed, innocent facade, won’t be shouting, “Motherf- – – – -” and “Shut the f- – – up!” whenever he pleases.

Instead, he’ll be saying “mother lover” and “shut the hell up.”

When “Dexter”‘s move to CBS was announced, hilarious video compilation of King’s greatest F-bomb hits were all the rage on YouTube. King says that the show’s actors began re-recording obscenity-free dialogue using an approved list of replacement words shortly after filming began in 2006, because “Dexter” shown on Virgin Atlantic flights and in anticipation of the show possibly airing on other networks.

“They called us back in to do looping after the first episode was edited,” King says. The actor he admits he’s got a potty mouth in real-life and can tell how much he swears on screen by the amount of looping he ends up having to do. “We go back and put in those ‘motherlovers’ and ‘I’m watching, freak.’ Sometimes, we’ll say, ‘Come on, it doesn’t look right. It doesn’t fit in my mouth.’ And of course, we acquiesce because we have to.

“We always laugh because it’s like, ‘Motherfreaker? What is that?’ Doakes can’t say ‘darn.’ It doesn’t make sense, so we go through the approved words and find the word that works.”

Even though the action and the fabulously foul-mouthed dialogue might be watered down, King doesn’t think that it will affect the broadcast version of the series too much.

“Because of the way the show is crafted, because it’s so edgy, I thought it would only play on premium television, but I think the main storyline that Dexter is a guy who’s damaged and trying to figure out what his life is about will still play through,” he says.

Of course, it helps that the series has a whiff of familiarity, thanks to its setting in the crime world.

While CBS could have picked any popular Showtime series, TV Week editor Jon Lafayette says, ” ‘Dexter’ is the best fit for the crime programming that CBS usually runs. ‘Weeds’ is more of a comedy, then you’ve got a period piece like ‘The Tudors,’ which wouldn’t fit, and ‘Californication’ wouldn’t work at all on broadcast because it’s all about sex.”

For “Dexter” to be considered a success on CBS, it only needs to pull in the same number of viewers that “Shark” reruns got, since it’s airing in that time slot.

Meanwhile, Showtime stands to benefit enormously. Having “Dexter” air on CBS “puts the show in front of 85 million people who otherwise might not have heard about it,” says Broadcasting & Cable senior staff writer Anne Becker. “Any of those viewers could be potential new Showtime subscribers.”

Don’t count on seeing “Dexter” making the move to CBS full-time if the series is picked up for a third season though, says Becker.

Although, she adds, “If the show did phenomenally well, CBS might re-purpose the second season the same way they did for the first.”

DEXTER

Sunday, 10 p.m., CBS