2015 Upfronts Pt. 3d: If I Scheduled FOX for 2015-16

Other posts in the 2015 Upfronts Series: Cancel/Renewal Predictions. Pilot Preview. ABC Schedule. CBS Schedule. NBC Schedule.

FOX is gonna be a fun one to schedule. Fox had one of the biggest TV launches in quite some time, with unprecedented consistent growth. I’m talking of course about Empire. And if hadn’t been for Empire, the headlines in Spring would’ve read something along the lines of ‘American Idol hits ANOTHER low.’ Indeed, outside of Empire, FOX had few other successes. Glee and The Following went out with a whimper. Multiple shows didn’t just fail, but failed spectacularly. Almost every night is a fixer upper. Much of the past season’s shows were greenlit by Entertainment chief Kevin Reilly who left (ahem, pushed out) before the start of the season. This upcoming season will feature shows greenlit and promoted/executed by the pair of Dana Walden and Gary Newman, who long jointly headed 20th Century Fox Television, known for its great successes with shows such as Glee, Sons of Anarchy, Modern Family, etc.

Sunday
Current Schedule: Repeat/Bob’s Burgers/The Simpsons/Brooklyn Nine-Nine/Family Guy/Last Man on Earth
Not much to mess around with here. Simpsons, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Family Guy all staying put. Originally I wanted to push New Girl here and burn off what will probably be its last season in the 7/6 o’clock hour, which may very well still be an option, but hold it back for later in the season. Star Zooey Deschanel is pregnant anyways which will delay production on the show a bit. Also NFL football usually bleeds into Fox’s Sundays and New Girl is a hard transition from football. The live-action/animation mix has proven itself to be a good mix (proving my skepticism wrong) so keep it up. Save Last Man on Earth for spring and put John Stamos-starring ‘Grandfathered’ in the last half-hour.

Monday
Current Schedule: Gotham/The Following
Gotham stays, it can anchor the night. I still like Sleepy Hollow, though the last couple episodes of season 2 felt obviously tacked on. Its ratings suffered a bit in the second season so move it to another night where the worst it can do is hold at current ratings. Lucifer is another DC comics shows so double up and call it DC Night.

Tuesday
Current Schedule: Hell’s Kitchen/New Girl/Weird Loners
Tuesday needs a dramatic overhaul. No more Hell’s Kitchen on any of the other nights. It can’t sustain a 2-season/year cycle. It burns itself out too much. Dancing with the Stars & The Voice can do it because they replenish their cast and coaches, Hell’s Kitchen retreads itself way too much to have 2 16-or-so episode seasons months apart. Also New Girl is barely sustainable at its current ratings and there is no 9:30/8:30 comedy to follow it. Scrap this night and start from scratch.
Glee made Tuesdays its home for much of its run, so slot another Ryan Murphy show to see if the night can return to those ratings heights. Horror-comedy Scream Queens is probably the buzziest of Fox’s new shows (as close to a slam-dunk hit as Fox could get) so use that to launch the night. Follow it with another buzzy and not entirely-incompatible show: Minority Report.

Wednesday
Current Schedule: American Idol
Fox faltered here last fall with Red Band Society. Fox has also been slightly mistreating its veteran show Bones, attempting to ship it off to Friday 2 seasons ago before bringing it back to Mondays and have a big hiatus in the middle of its current season. As a result its ratings have suffered. Plunk it down in on Wednesdays and let it be to lead off the night. The investigative genre and male-female leads of Rosewood sound very compatible: “…series centers around the brilliant Dr. Beaumont Rosewood Jr., the top private pathologist in all of Miami. As owner of one of the most sophisticated, state-of-the-art independent labs in the country, he finds the secrets in bodies that others usually miss. Despite being constantly surrounded by death Rosewood is obsessed with life and savors every moment. His eternal optimism will frustrate the cynical female detective he often works with, but she can’t argue with the results that his unique perspective provides.”
There will inevitably be a failure on the schedule, particularly on the revamped days. Fox should just show repeats of Empire after a show fails. I’d be curious to see what kind of ratings it gets. Don’t waste the repeats on Friday, it’ll probably do well enough to be competitive.

Thursday
Current Schedule: Bones/Backstrom
Sleepy Hollow & Frankenstein. I can’t say I’m entirely optimistic about Thursday’s chances. Masterchef Junior could go here followed by Frankenstein but it seems too cruel to just cast Sleepy Hollow off to die on Friday.

Friday
Current Schedule: Movie
Masterchef Junior pulls in perfectly respectable ratings and it may be a bit of a waste it here but if worse comes to worse, if something fails on a different night MJ can be moved to that night with repeats continuing on Friday.

2015-16 FOX television schedule
new shows in italics

Sunday: Repeat/Bob’s Burgers/The Simpsons/Brooklyn Nine-Nine/Family Guy/Grandfathered
Monday: Gotham/Lucifer
Tuesday: Scream Queens/Minority Report
Wednesday: Bones/Rosewood
Thursday: Sleepy Hollow/Frankenstein
Friday: Masterchef Junior/Encore

Last Year’s Upfront Preview:
Part 3: FOX
Part 3: NBC
Part 3: CBS
Part 3: ABC
Part 2: Pilot Preview
Part 1: Cancel/Renew