It's not been a great year for Fox, what with American Idol ratings falling and not much of the new stuff catching on with viewers. So how are they going to try to recapture the Fox Attitude?
Who's Staying? Who's Going? - Odds are if you like a Fox show it's going to be on air again, which is interesting given that Fox is slumping. About the only surprise on the cancellation list is The Cleveland Show.
What's Coming?
Monday - the year will start with Bones, followed by Sleepy Hollow, a contemporary take on the Ichabod Crane tale, except that Crane is resurrected and brought to the present day to help solve a mystery dating back to his own time so as to save humanity. Wait, what?
Mid-season brings Almost Human (think Robocop meets Blade Runner, with JJ Abrams lending his name), leading into the second season of The Following, which I've enjoyed, even if I find it hard to buy into all of the successes that Joe Carroll and his plucky band of psychopaths have had against the FBI.
Tuesday - Brings two new sitcoms. One is Dads, where a pair of video game creators (Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi) have to deal with taking in their dads (Marin Mull and Peter Riegert). Generic, but will hopefully use the cast to good effect. The other new sitcom, and possibly the most promising new show, is Brooklyn Nine-Nine, a police comedy starring Andy Samberg as the hotshot detective and Andre Braugher as his new captain. They had me at Andre.
New Girl and The Mindy Project finish the night.
Wednesday - gives us The X Factor in the fall and the Randy Jacksonless American Idol in the spring. I wonder how much longer Fox is going to try to make The X Factor a thing.
Thursday - results shows for the two singing shows lead into Glee in the fall and new show Rake in at midseason. Rake stars Greg Kinnear as a defense attorney who lives on the edge and takes on the unwinnable cases, addicted to the challenge as much as he's addicted to anything else. I assume there will be no singing.
Friday - leads with Junior Masterchef, a version of Masterchef for kids. American Juniors was apparently not enough of an object lesson on why this is a bad idea. It's followed by reruns of Sleepy Hollow (because, huh?). Later in the fall, Bones moves here along with Raising Hope and new comedy Enlisted, a military comedy set at an Army base in Florida.
Saturday - sports and reruns
Sunday - Animation Domination, unchanged.
As for unscheduled stuff, the big announcement is the return of 24 for a special 12 episode run. Not much info besides that, but bringing Jack back will boost ratings. The only other unscheduled show that looks interesting is Gang Related, about cops taking on gangs in Los Angeles, but that's mostly from a casting perspective (Terry O'Quinn and RZA, together at last).
The Verdict?
Fox has a really good looking Tuesday, and Monday could work out for them once Sleepy Hollow gets out of the way. Sunday should be fine, too. They've got a burgeoning hole in the middle of the week with the reality shows, especially if they can't figure out a way to shore up AI). A more consistent and coherent Glee wouldn't hurt either. And while Friday nights are typically low risk, I have no idea what they're trying to do there. They'd better hope some of their returning shows stay strong or even build.
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