With American Idol sinking like a stone, Fox needs new hits. Other than The Following, the network didn't have any successes this season — yes, The Mindy Project got renewed, but its ratings are relatively low. The network benefited from its fewer programming hours (8 to 10 p.m.) and the fact that NBC and ABC did worse.
As Kevin Reilly, Fox's chairman, said on Monday afternoon at the Beacon Theater, when he presented the network's new shows to advertisers, the press, and other interested folk, "This was not our best year."
So instead of making the aggressive rethinking moves that NBC is, the network simply seems to be trying to program shows that people might like. With its comedies, it's largely moving away from the younger female audience that favors New Girl and Mindy, except in the case of Us & Them, an American attempt to remake the beloved Gavin & Stacey from the U.K. The search for elusive male viewers seems evident in its drama picks as well.
It's also getting aggressive about year-round programming, a drum Reilly has been beating for years. New drama Gang Related won't be coming on until May, assuming all goes as planned. And what is now perhaps its most exciting announcement, a 12-hour 24 miniseries with Kiefer Sutherland, will also debut in May.
A few other things of note in the Fox announcements:
— New Girl and one of the new comedies, presumably whichever one is working best, will get the big post-Super Bowl platform when Fox broadcasts the game on Feb. 2, 2014.
— During his conference call with reporters Monday morning, Reilly said there are no judges announcements for X Factor yet given the departures of L.A. Reid and Britney Spears. He said it will happen soon.
— Speaking of limited series, M. Night Shyamalan will bring Wayward Pines to Fox, based on the novel Pines by Blake Crouch. It will star Matt Dillon as a Secret Service agent who travels to Idaho to find two missing federal agents. Sounds Twin Peaks-y? Perhaps someone who read the novel can let me know.
— The announcement claims that Fox will be eventually moving Bones and Raising Hope to Fridays. The network always claims it will be moving or scheduling a decent-sized hit to Fridays in the fantasy world where all the new shows are successes. I will not fall for it this time, nor should you.
— The full schedule is at the bottom of the story! And now the new shows are arranged in chronological order throughout the week.
This story has been updated with embedded trailers and my reactions to them.
Almost Human: Late fall (Mondays at 8 p.m.)
Sleepy Hollow (Mondays at 9 p.m.)
Dads (Tuesdays at 8 p.m.)
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m.)
Rake: Midseason (Thursdays at 9 p.m.)
Enlisted: Late fall (Fridays at 9:30 p.m.)
Gang Related: Midseason, Not Yet Scheduled
Surviving Jack: Midseason, Not Yet Scheduled
Us & Them: Midseason, Not Yet Scheduled
FOX 2013-2014 SCHEDULE
(All times ET/PT)
MONDAY
8:00-9:00 p.m. BONES (fall) / ALMOST HUMAN (new; late fall)
9:00-10:00 p.m. SLEEPY HOLLOW (new; fall) / THE FOLLOWING(midseason)
TUESDAY
8:00-8:30 p.m. DADS (new)
8:30-9:00 p.m. BROOKLYN NINE-NINE (new)
9:00-9:30 p.m. NEW GIRL
9:30-10:00 p.m. THE MINDY PROJECT
WEDNESDAY
8:00-10:00 p.m. THE X FACTOR (fall) / AMERICAN IDOL (midseason)
THURSDAY
8:00-9:00 p.m. THE X FACTOR Results (fall) / AMERICAN IDOL Results (midseason)
9:00-10:00 p.m. GLEE (fall) / RAKE (new; midseason)
FRIDAY
8:00-9:00 p.m. JUNIOR MASTERCHEF (wt) (new; fall)
9:00-10:00 p.m. SLEEPY HOLLOW encores (fall)
Late Fall:
8:00-9:00 p.m. BONES (late fall)
9:00-9:30 p.m. RAISING HOPE (late fall)
9:30-10:00 p.m. ENLISTED (new; late fall)
SATURDAY
7:00-10:30 p.m. FOX SPORTS SATURDAY
11:00 PM-12:30 p.m. ANIMATION DOMINATION HIGH-DEF
SUNDAY
7:00-7:30 p.m. NFL Game (fall)
7:30-8:00 p.m. THE OT (fall)
8:00-8:30 p.m. THE SIMPSONS
8:30-9:00 p.m. BOB'S BURGERS
9:00-9:30 p.m. FAMILY GUY
9:30-10:00 p.m. AMERICAN DAD
Scheduling to be announced for the following new series slated for midseason: GANG RELATED (new), SURVIVING JACK (new), US & THEM (new) and MURDER POLICE (new).