Upfronts: Fox

First, apologies for the delay on this. As hard as it is sometimes to follow Fox's scheduling, personal lethargy is mostly to blame.

What's gone? - no surprises here, really. If it was on hiatus, it's gone. We'll get some burn off this summer from Standoff, but that's about it.

What's back? - most everything returns in its normal place, although Fox is going to try to shift Bones to Friday again. It'll be on Wednesdays in the fall, but is scheduled to move to Fridays once American Idol returns. I'm thinking we'll see this move go the same way as last year's.

What's new for the fall? - we'll take this day by day.

On Monday we get K-Ville, a gritty cop drama set in post-Katrina New Orleans. Anthony Anderson stars, and apparently his character may be a little too pathological for some viewers. It'll be paired with Prison Break.

Tuesdays will lead off with New Amsterdam, which is about a New York City cop who is immortal. I don't know what they'll do with that hook outside of a lot of pantaloon-fueled flashbacks. It'll lead in to House.

Wednesday features the only sitcoms for the week, with newcomer Back to You getting paired with Til Death. Kelsey Grammer stars as a TV anchor whose fall from national prominence sees him return to his old station and his old partner - who is also his ex-wife (Patricia Heaton). Fred Williard is in the cast, too. Given the ages of the players, I have to think that Fox is looking to follow the CBS route and open its tent to all viewers... at least on Wednesdays.

Thursday is all unscripted, with Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? leading into Kitchen Nightmares, based on the Gordon Ramsay show seen here on BBC America. I'm a fan of the original, and will be interested to see how it translates. Given the common problems of some of the restuarants on the original, I'm not sure they can provide enough variety over the course of a standard US television season. On the other hand, there are plenty of crappy restaurants out there, so we'll see.

Friday is also all unscripted, with the American Idol spin-off The Search for the Next Great American band leading into Nashville. The former show needs no explanation, given the expository title and its genesis from Idol. The latter show takes a Laguna Beach-style examination of young people trying to make it in Music City, USA. I can't say I'm interested in either of these, and I'm not sure how many people in its target audience are going to be home on Friday night to watch.

Saturday and Sunday are unchanged.

What's new for spring 2008? - a couple more new shows here.

On Wednesday, when the Idol results show gets mercifully cut down to a half-hour, we get The Return of Jezebel James as its lead-in. From the folks who brought us Gilmore Girls, it features Parker Posey and Lauren Ambrose as formerly estranged sisters brought back together when the older (Posey) asks the younger (Ambrose) to carry her baby. Good leads, and will likely be funnier than Notes from the Underbelly, though that is a very low bar.

On Thursdays we replace Kitchen Nightmares with Canterbury's Law, which is about a crusading defense attorney who will bend the rules to protect the wrongly accused. Pretty ho-hum, but it stars Julianna Marguiles and is from the folks behind Rescue Me and director Mike Figgis. So there's hope.

Once football is done, all of the comedies on Sunday move up an hour and the day ends with The Sarah Connor Chronicles, based on the Terminator movies. This is more of what I'd expect from Fox, though I'm dubious about the appeal given that it's been four years since the last (underwhelming) installment in the movie franchise. I may very well be underestimating things, though.

Oh, New Amsterdam is also scheduled to move to Fridays once American Idol comes back. This seems more likely to me than Bones being its schedule-mate.