TUESDAY
SHILO: 8:00 Last Man Standing; 8:30 Geniuses; 9:00 Hell’s Kitchen
CRAIG: 8:00 Last Man Standing; 8:30 Patty’s Auto; 9:00 The Cool Kids; 9:30 Richard Lovely
SHILO: The whole Friday lineup gets transplanted to Tuesdays because WWE Smackdown is set to move to FOX Fridays this fall. FOX could conceivably do more schedule tinkering if they want these shows on another night, but it’s a much smoother transition to shift everything to Tuesdays, which will be open in the absence of The Gifted and Lethal Weapon. The 9:00 slot could maybe become the affiliate-friendly Gordon Ramsey hour, with Hell’s Kitchen, 24 Hours to Hell and Back, and MasterChef Junior cycling through, while the 8:00 hour is friendlier to comedies considering the local lead-in. I don’t see FOX not premiering a live-action comedy in the fall, especially when they’re as high as they seem to be on Geniuses, and where The Cool Kids isn’t anchor worthy, I don’t think they’ll try to expand to a four-comedy bloc. Last Man Standing will be one of the rare shows to move back mid-week after being sent to Fridays, which will be interesting to watch; the series aired its first season on Tuesdays before moving to Fridays in season two. Also of note: It’ll likely have multi-cam competition from Roseanne spinoff The Conners.
CRAIG: When FOX first became prominent, they were known for a lot of half-hour sitcoms, some good (Married… with Children), and many mediocre. If “New FOX” returns to their roots a bit, I’d suggest a 2-hour comedy block for Tuesday nights again. It could be disaster, but who knows, it might not be; after all, FOX with Last Man Standing blew away competition on Friday nights this past season. Both Patty’s Auto and Richard Lovely sound like they could fit the FOX brand, so again, a little old, a little new.
