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| Fox is giving "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" a big boost this fall. |
In my upfront preview for Fox, I asked just how far
Fox was willing to go toward airing a cable schedule. Would they be willing to dedicate four hours
in the fall to shows that won’t air in the spring? Apparently, the answer to that question is “yes,”
as Fox debuted a schedule yesterday morning with three series of pre-determined lengths, a litany of shows for
the spring, and an as yet uncertain future for its still number one show, American Idol. It’s almost impossible to predict how the
network will perform this year without knowing where Idol will end up, or even how often it will air. During his press call, Fox president Kevin
Reilly indicated that Idol would probably
only run about 37 hours, rather than the 50 this spring. That seems to indicate that the show will be
limited to one night a week, but Reilly also suggested that midseason series Empire would be airing after Idol at some point, so who knows.
Idol aside, it
seems as though Fox’s fall schedule is all about finding new building
blocks. New series are paired with
established successes and even the dismantling of Animation Domination appears
geared toward building up Brooklyn
Nine-Nine. It’s not a particularly
aggressive schedule, but it’s not designed to protect its hits at all
costs.
Fox’s 2014-15
Schedule (New shows in BOLD)
Monday –
7:00pm – Gotham
8:00pm – Sleepy Hollow
This was probably the most obvious scheduling decision Fox
had. Take your most promising pilot, put
it with last season’s breakout hit and see what they can do together. I only see one potential problem. Viewers may initially be drawn to Gotham thinking that it’s a Batman story
when it is, in fact, a Jim Gordon story.
That disconnect could put off a lot of people if the pilot isn’t very
good. I can see this duo drawing great
ratings during its first week only to rapidly shed viewers if Gotham doesn’t meet expectations. The cast is great, though, so it can’t be too terrible.
Fox has already announced that Gotham’s run will be limited to 16 episodes (which have already
been ordered) while Sleepy Hollow will
be airing 18. Ideally, it seems, Fox
would run the pair together for 16 weeks before giving Sleepy Hollow a two-hour finale in January before making way for The Following and whichever show the
network pairs with it in the spring.
Tuesday –
7:00pm – Utopia
8:00pm – New Girl/The
Mindy Project
I don’t know that Fox has the faith in new reality series Utopia that it has in Gotham.
This seems like a play meant to minimize damage. New
Girl and The Mindy Project were
both limping along by the end of this season and the two-hour comedy block has
obviously not been what Fox was hoping for.
The strategy here seems obvious.
If Utopia is a hit (unlikely)
or semi-hit (possible), it could lift the comedies to a more respectable
level. If it’s a flop, well New Girl and Mindy have already been airing airing behind the languishing Glee all spring, so it’s doubtful the
ratings could get any worse. This is a
no-risk, minimal reward play, but given the network’s struggles on this night,
it’s probably the best move.
Wednesday –
7:00pm – Hell’s
Kitchen
8:00pm – Red Band Society
Oddly enough, Red Band
Society was the only new drama Fox announced for the fall that doesn’t have
a pre-determined endpoint for its first season.
So where does the network put it?
On Wednesday nights of course, where Idol
has taken up shop for the past several seasons.
The cancelation of The X-Factor
has left Fox in something of a bind. As
was the case several years ago, they’re forced to debut multiple shows with
planned obsolescence. With as much talk
as there has been about DVRs and on-demand viewership siphoning away viewers,
the live audience still accounts for the vast majority of television viewing
and those viewers like consistency. They
like knowing that when they sit down on Wednesday nights the same shows
that aired in the fall will be there again in the winter and spring. I could easily see Red Band Society moving to Monday nights to pair with The Following or even to Thursday nights
with Bones if Fox does indeed pare Idol to one night per week. But Fox needs to be careful with their new
shows, and not just shuffle them all around when January comes.
Thursday –
7:00pm – Bones
8:00pm – Gracepoint
This is another move that makes a lot of sense. Take your most consistent show, partner it
with a limited run series and plan to move it in the spring. Bones’s
audience has shown time and time again that it will follow the show wherever it
goes, including Friday nights. If I’m Fox,
this is the night where I want to put Idol
in the spring because I don’t have to interrupt Gracepoint and I can slot in Bones
anywhere else on the schedule and it will do just fine. The only problem with that plan is that it
will still likely put Idol against The Big Bang Theory at 7:00, from whom
the network ran this spring, and against The
Blacklist and Scandal (spoiler)
at 8:00 - impressive competition to be sure.
Friday –
7:00pm – Masterchef
Jr.
8:00pm – Utopia
I don’t really know what to say here. Masterchef
Jr. wasn’t broke so there was no reason to do anything crazy with it and Utopia’s slot here doesn’t sound like it
will be a long-term thing. Unless Fox
decides to extend Masterchef’s
episode order (it ran only seven weeks last season), this will likely have
changed by the middle of November.
Before that, however, it should pull in perfectly average ratings for
Friday nights.
Sunday –
6:00pm – NFL Overrun/Bob’s
Burgers
7:00pm – The Simpsons/Brooklyn Nine-Nine
8:00pm – Family Guy/Mulaney
Sunday is where Fox makes its most aggressive play. After running Animation Domination for almost
a decade, the network returns live-action comedy to the fall Sunday schedule
for the first time since 2006 and will air more than one such show for the
first time since 2003, when The Bernie
Mac Show, Malcolm in the Middle, and Arrested
Development followed The Simpsons. Honestly, it seems like a really good
play. Fox has seen diminishing returns
from the animated comedies they’ve been putting around the Simpsons and Family Guy
and Brooklyn Nine-Nine has been
critically well-received and won the Golden Globe for Outstanding Comedy this
year. It also skews male, like the shows
with which it will be paired. I don’t
know that it’s going to work, but if Fox really doesn’t have faith that Bob’s Burgers or any of their other
animated development are going to be the next Family Guy (or hell even the next American Dad), this seems like a good way to go. It’s also worth noting that Mulaney has been referred to as very Seinfeld-esque, so there’s some
potential there as well.
Still on the shelf for later in the season is Glee, with which Fox appears to be
trying to negotiate down the episode order given how badly the show tanked this
spring, along with a half dozen new series, Kitchen
Nightmares, and Idol. Unlike in past years, when they seemed to
delight in the myriad changes to its winter and spring schedule, Fox isn’t even
trying to predict where its shows will land after September. This isn’t a strong schedule, but they’re
using every piece they have to try to build new programs. It’s not aggressive,
but they are still taking risks, which they probably need to in order to avoid
finishing in last place.
Tyler Williams is a
professional librarian and amateur television critic. You can reach him at tytalkstv AT gmail DOT
com or on Twitter @TyTalksTV.
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