FOX Holds "Standoff" Until Summer

Apologies to the two or three remaining fans of FOX's beleaguered freshman drama Standoff. Looks like you won't be seeing the professional and romantic antics of your beloved hostage negotiators next Friday night after all.

In a random scheduling change, Standoff will not be returning to the airwaves next Friday as reported and written about in numerous publications. Instead, FOX will be pushing the return engagement of Standoff until well after May sweeps, landing the show a June 8th return date and will use its intended Friday night timeslot to air repeats of House. (Though at press time, FOX had still not changed the date listed on its Standoff mini-site.)

Before you start worrying about Ron Livinston and Rosemary DeWitt finding work with pilot season already in full swing, FOX has been very careful to avoid speculation that the series has been cancelled. Instead, a network spokesperson was careful to indicate that a decision has not been made on the future of Standoff until after the network picks up its fall pilots.

Eleven episodes of Standoff (out of a total 19 episodes shot) have aired to date. The series originally debuted in a Tuesday night at 9 pm timeslot in September before shifting to 8 pm in October and then going on a rather lengthy (and now protracted) hiatus in December.

The eventual fate of the series calls to mind the fact that of the three new drama series FOX introduced this year, Standoff is the only one still somewhat alive, following the cancellation of fellow froshers Justice and Vanished (and that's not even mentioning Happy Hour or The Rich List).