For once, FOX may have done something smart.I don't often say that but it's perhaps for the best that the network most likely to cancel a new series (you might as well call them Trigger Happy TV) is holding back on several of its newest offerings until midseason, giving them a chance to creatively retool before thrusting the series into the public eye.
Following in the footsteps on midseason launches for The Return of Jezebel James, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and The Rules for Starting Over, FOX has yanked supernatural drama New Amsterdam--a police procedural based around an immortal man who has lived in Manhattan since the days of the Dutch--off of the fall schedule. It was slated to launch on Tuesday, September 25th, at 8 pm.
According to Variety, the network said the moves "were made in order to improve Fox's chances in the fall, where it has struggled in recent years."
So what's taking over for New Amsterdam in the meantime? FOX has shifted its schedule slightly, scheduling reality programming from 9 pm on Wednesday to Sunday. (Yes, you read that correctly. Half of Wednesday night and Thursday, Friday, and Saturday will be offered up at the altar of alternative programming.)
Part of that strategy involves keeping summer reality hit Don't Forget the Lyrics on the air through the fall as well as moving the US format of Kitchen Nightmares (starring everyone's favorite enfant terrible chef Gordon Ramsay) to Wednesdays at 9 pm, where it will launch on September 19th, leading out of comedy block Back to You and 'Til Death. Taking over Kitchen's vacated timeslot (Thursdays at 9 pm) then will be the recently ordered additional episodes of Don't Forget the Lyrics.
FOX has also shifted drama Bones, entering its third season, to New Amsterdam's timeslot (Tuesdays at 8 pm). The move is a wise one: Bones was previously going to launch this year in a rather combative timeslot--Wednesdays at 9 pm--where it would have gone up against four other dramas: Private Practice on ABC, Bionic Woman on NBC, Criminal Minds on CBS, and Gossip Girl on CW.
FOX was quick to stress that New Amsterdam wasn't cancelled and will remain in production; the series' projected January timeslot (Fridays at 9 pm) hasn't been struck and the series will eventually make it onto the air.
Comments