Continued from Part 2FRIDAY
SHILO: Raising Hope can perform anywhere. Its loyal audience is its loyal audience and given that the show is heading into its fourth season, its first without creator Greg Garcia, it might be best served going to Fridays at 8. The show has been tried behind both American Idol and The X Factor to no avail and with the disappointment of the Tuesday lineup this season, I don’t think FOX keeps three of the four players together for another season. If Raising Hope manages to keep itself afloat on Fridays, maybe FOX has found a solution to the night that’s not been kind to its scripted programming.
Rumor has it that the network is looking to pick up at or around five new comedies for next season, which makes Friday comedy a much more likely affair. As Mindy is still with New Girl and Dads has been put on Sundays in my schedule, they need something to air with Raising Hope, which should be family comedy The Gabriels. The show, starring Rob Riggle and Angela Kinsey, is another small town show that could fit the tone of Raising Hope and benefit from the viewership boost at 8:30. Additionally, the combination of Raising Hope and The Gabriels could hurt ABC’s Friday comedies, especially with a strong lead-out like Kitchen Nightmares.
Gordon Ramsey shows have proven to be the ultimate fix-all for FOX in recent years. While Hell’s Kitchen is being reserved for midseason/schedule filling and Masterchef takes over the summer, Kitchen Nightmares makes for a good Friday show and something that could be good backup for the comedy hour. Given that the network will be taking a risk in the 8:00 hour, they need security at 9:00, something that will get them a number every week and that they won’t have to worry about.
CRAIG: I’m going to be a little less bold. Kitchen Nightmares seems to do pretty well at 8:00, and FOX may as well just keep it there as it seems to work. Maybe it could swap out for other reality during breaks if they really want it to.
At 9:00, I’d say to stick with the “more of the same” thing, even if that’s boring, and follow FOX’s Fringe legacy by running shows created by, well, creators of Fringe. For Fall, I’d go with Kurtzman & Orci’s Sleepy Hollow, a spooky and mysterious show that would probably be served well airing around Halloween time. In the Spring, I’d swap it out for J.J. Abrams & J.H. Wyman’s Human. As I said with Delirium, if they do really well, they may need to re-evaluate. It’s always risky to launch something new on a Friday night, but as I said in the CW piece, I think if something is truly good, audiences will tune in.
MIDSEASON
CRAIG: I already covered my midseason thoughts up above, but here are two other pilots in particular, Rake with Greg Kinnear and Boomerang with Felicity Huffman, that I think are both quite worthy of spots on the FOX schedule, but there are only so many timeslots to go around. I might recommend picking these up too and shooting 13 episode seasons to plug in where they could help. You never know when an X Factor might implode on itself. It sounds like Rake may already be staffing, so I assume it’ll end up *somewhere,* and Boomerang just sounds cool.
SHILO: Dads currently has a six-episode order and while that could be extended, I don’t think it gets a full 22, at least not 22 in the Sundays at 9:30 slot. Animated comedy Murder Police is waiting in the wings for midseason and should assume the post-Family Guy slot, if FOX believes it has a chance to make it. If Dads proves to be a success, it could potentially find a home on Fridays, should The Gabriels not catch on. I’d keep The Following on Mondays at 9:00; as with Rake, it’s good counterprogramming for a tonally opposite night and the only thing that hurt the show was the arrival of The Voice. Even then, its finale was up quite a bit, so it’s enough of a self-starter to where a move isn’t necessary. Glee takes a short hiatus every season and FOX should take advantage of that by premiering a new, young-skewing drama with a reduced episode order. Delirium is the drama on FOX’s development slate that would most likely pair well with New Girl and The Mindy Project, with its built-in book series audience and marketable cast. Male-centric comedies Brooklyn 99 and Enlisted would make for a decent continuation of the niche audience that Sleepy Hollow would carve out, differing from the family comedies on NBC and (likely) friend-oriented comedies on CBS.
SHILO’S SCHEDULE
SUNDAY
7:30 American Dad!
8PM The Simpsons
8:30 Bob’s Burgers
9PM Family Guy
9:30 Dads; Murder Police (midseason)
MONDAY
8PM Bones
9PM Rake; The Following (midseason)
TUESDAY
8PM Glee; Delirium (midseason)
9PM New Girl
9:30 The Mindy Project
WEDNESDAY
8PM The X Factor; American Idol (midseason)
THURSDAY
8PM The X Factor; American Idol Results (Midseason)
9PM Sleepy Hollow; Brooklyn 99 & Enlisted (Midseason)
FRIDAY
8PM Raising Hope
8:30 The Gabriels
9PM Kitchen Nightmares
CRAIG’S SCHEDULE
SUNDAY
7:30 Bob’s Burgers
8PM The Simpsons
8:30 Dads
9PM Family Guy
9:30 American Dad!
MONDAY
8PM Bones
9PM Delirium; The Following (midseason)
TUESDAY
8PM Raising Hope
8:30 Mindy Project
9PM New Girl
9:30 Friends & Family
WEDNESDAY
8PM The X Factor; American Idol (Midseason)
THURSDAY
8PM The X Factor; American Idol Results (Midseason)
9PM Glee
FRIDAY
8PM Kitchen Nightmares
9PM Sleepy Hollow; Human (Midseason)
ADDITIONAL
Rake, Boomerang