I have a feeling there’ll be lots of TV-related news this week, as networks shore-up and reveal their final line-ups for the 2015-2016 season, after a flurry of activity last week (series cancellations, renewals, pilots ordered to series, etc).
Here’s more from Fox, following my post just below this one about "Empire" season 2…
The network unveiled its fall season primetime schedule this morning, and, of note, they moved "Sleepy Hollow" (a series I thought would actually be canceled, for reasons I previously gave here) to Thursday nights at 9PM, putting it against "Scandal" on ABC, which I’d argue certainly doesn’t help, and I would say may be a death sentence for the series. As we all know well, Thursday primetime TV belongs to Shonda Rhimes; she owns all 3 time-slots – "Grey’s Anatomy" at 8pm; "Scandal" at 9pm; and "How to Get Away with Murder" at 10pm. If fox’s hope is that moving the already ratings-troubled "Sleepy Hollow" to Thursday night will positively-affect the supernatural drama’s audience draw, I would argue the opposite.
But I’m certainly not in Fox’s "war room," and aren’t privy to what data they have in front of them that inspired this decision, so I could be entirely wrong in my assumptions. Time will tell…
Taking "Sleepy Hollow’s" previous Monday night, 9PM slot will be a new series – the adaptation of "Minority Report" that co-stars Meagan Good. Let’s hope she fares better than Nicole Beharie did in "Sleepy" (her character was essentially pushed aside from lead to supporting, much to the frustration of fans of the show).
Also of note, the new Morris Chestnut crime drama series, "Rosewood" (I really think they should reconsider the title for obvious reasons) has been given the 8PM Wednesday night slot, as a lead-in into "Empire" at 9PM. It should do well (at least initially) with that slot, given that "Empire" comes right after it. I can see fans of "Empire" making Wednesday night a Fox night, tuning in to "Rosewood" at 8PM, and then "Empire" at 9PM. Also, the Wednesday 8PM slot isn’t super competitive currently – unless other broadcast TV networks do some shifting of their own, and "Rosewood" ends up going up against a very popular series on another network.
And if you’re wondering why "Backstrom," "The Following," "Gang Related," "Glee," "Gracepoint," "The Mindy Project," "Mulaney," "Red Band Society," "Utopia" and "Weird Loners" aren’t on Fox’s fall schedule, it’s because they’ve all been canceled.
Fox’s Primetime schedule below (new series are in caps):
MONDAY
8 pm Gotham
9 pm MINORITY REPORT
TUESDAY
8 pm GRANDFATHERED
8:30pm THE GRINDER
9 pm SCREAM QUEENS
WEDNESDAY
8 pm ROSEWOOD
9 pm Empire
THURSDAY
8 pm Bones
9 pm Sleepy Hollow
FRIDAY
8 pm Masterchef Junior
9 pm World’s Funniest
SATURDAY
Fox Sports Saturday
SUNDAY
7 pm NFL
7:30 pm Bob’s Burgers
8 pm The Simpsons
8:30 pm Brooklyn Nine-Nine
9 pm Family Guy
9:30 pm The Last Man on Earth
