UPFRONTS 2013: FOX's Official Fall Schedule

FOX's turn! Check out trailers for their new series here!

MONDAYS
8:00 Bones (9th Season)/ALMOST HUMAN
9:00 SLEEPY HOLLOW

FOX has a plan to basically have a revolving door of dramas on Monday night throughout the season. It will start with the reliable Bones back at 8pm leading into the new drama Sleepy Hollow. This is the only FOX drama that will launch right away in the fall so it's sure to get marketing muscle. Plus it already has encores scheduled weekly on Fridays. FOX seems desperate to make this work and go the way of The Following and not The Mob Doctor. In "late fall," they will ship Bones to Fridays and launch the new sci-fi drama Almost Human. That is, of course, assuming that things go well with Sleepy Hollow. Then at midseason, FOX will bring back The Following to 9pm for another uninterrupted 15 episode run. Dramas are the way to go on Mondays for FOX but this seems a little confusing. And what will they do if Sleepy Hollow is a hit? Will they only do a shorter season? Because The Following is not giving up its Monday 9pm slot.

TUESDAYS
8:00 DADS
8:30 BROOKLYN NINE-NINE
9:00 New Girl (3rd Season)
9:30 The Mindy Project (2nd Season)

FOX is going with all comedies again on Tuesday night but there isn't much cohesion to the block besides being all comedies. The first hour is male-skewing, the second hour is female-skewing. The first show is multi-camera, the next three are single-camera. FOX had a tough time with a two hour comedy block this season but they are trying again and hoping Seth McFarlane's Dads and Brooklyn Nine-Nine with Andy Samberg are more self-starters than Raising Hope and Ben and Kate were this year. I think both comedies are promising but we'll see if they can gain more traction. Their worst move was keeping The Mindy Project at 9:30pm. This show shouldn't have even been renewed and it certainly shouldn't keep this timeslot when they have the promising and potentially compatible Us and Them on the bench. FOX is leaving multiple comedies on the bench and they have a Friday block that could always go away if things bomb here but it looks like they are committed to making a two hour comedy block work. FOX also announced that New Girl and one of their new comedies would get the coveted post-Super Bowl slot.

WEDNESDAYS
8:00 The X Factor (3rd Season)

Despite picking up nearly double as many series this year, FOX is not touching its fading X Factor/American Idol block as they are still devoting two hours on Wednesdays and an hour on Thursdays. The format for X Factor will reportedly change slightly but this is still giving up a huge amount of real estate for Idol, which is in free fall, and Factor, which has never fully caught on. I think that's a mistake by FOX.

THURSDAYS
8:00 The X Factor (3rd Season)
9:00 Glee (5th Season)

Thursdays will stay the same in the fall with an hour of The X Factor and Glee. I'm not as opposed to this asGlee slips a little bit every year. The plan for now is to premiere the Greg Kinnear drama Rake after the NFC Championship Game and then give it the Thursday 9pm slot after American Idol. Glee will take an extended break and return in late spring and air into the summer. If FOX is going to launch a new drama after one of these shows, it should be after Idol and the midseason makes more sense. So this is one night where I feel like FOX got it right.
I am with their Wednesday night lineup. Thursday night might be tough to break into with new shows and these both do well enough though

FRIDAYS
8:00 JUNIOR MASTERCHEF/Bones
9:00 Raising Hope (4th Season)
9:30 ENLISTED

Friday nights will start with the unscripted reality show Junior Masterchef at 8pm and repeats of Sleepy Hollow at 9pm. Then in "late fall" (the same time the Monday lineup switches, probably mid November post-baseball), FOX will bring Bones over to the night. I'm not sure why they're bringing their most reliable drama to Fridays where it could have a tough go. I would wait until they had more proven drama series in their arsenal. Bones will be paired with a comedy block which includes Raising Hope, which is basically airing for syndication purposes, and new military comedy Enlisted. FOX must not have high hopes for Enlisted if it's getting a Friday 9:30pm slot. Again, a little lack of cohesion on this night.

SATURDAYS
8:00 FOX Sports Saturday
With Cops moving to Spike TV, FOX Sports will fully take over Saturday night and probably win many weeks.

SUNDAYS
7:00 NFL Overrun/The OT/Animated Encores
8:00 The Simpsons (25th Season)
8:30 Bob's Burgers (4th Season)
9:00 Family Guy (11th Season)
9:30 American Dad! (9th Season)
FOX is keeping the status quo on Sundays except for no schedule for The Cleveland Show as FOX did not order more episodes, effectively cancelling it. This lineup had some rough times this season but FOX will keep it in place where it can usually do better in the fall with football. Of note is the 25th season for The Simpsons, quite an accomplishment. They do have one cartoon on deck, Murder Police. It will likely premiere around midseason, maybe near the NFL playoff games.

MIDSEASON: American Idol, The Following, Hell's Kitchen, Masterchef, 24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY, GANG RELATED, MURDER POLICE, RAKE, SURVIVING JACK, US AND THEM
FOX has more than usual on deck this season. I already discussed where Idol, Following, and Rake will air. No plans yet for Surviving Jack and Us and Them. 24: Live Another Day is a new limited series continuation of FOX's hit 24. As of now, the plan is for it to be paired with Gang Related next May. Murder Police will go on Sundays at some point. Finally, Hell's Kitchen and Masterchef will be filler or possible summer series if things work. FOX has a lot of promising new series in my opinion. I just don't love the way they've been scheduled.

CANCELLED/ENDED: Ben and Kate, The Cleveland Show, Fringe, The Mob Doctor, Touch
As we've known for awhile.