MONDAY
CRAIG’S PREDICTIONS: 8:00 Marvel’s The Gifted; 9:00 Gotham
SHILO’S PREDICTIONS: 8:00 Marvel’s The Gifted; 9:00 Gotham
ACTUAL SCHEDULE: 8:00 Lucifer; 9:00 Marvel’s The Gifted
CRAIG: I’m of two minds with this: Part of me was surprised and a little shocked that Marvel’s The Gifted wasn’t paired with Gotham, as they seemed as though they’d have similar audiences and Gifted would help Gotham in the long run. But, that might be exactly why FOX took a risk, putting Lucifer here: The DC/Vertigo devil show hasn’t been around as long; it is surely a lot cheaper to produce, as Gotham has like 72 series regulars; and unlike the pre-Batman drama, it may have even more room to grow into an even bigger hit. There’s also the matter of Lucifer Season 3 having something like 26 episodes: That means, theoretically, that the show can stay on the air even in the months when FOX inevitably subs in something like The X-Files at midseason.
SHILO: Though I understand that FOX doesn’t want The Gifted to go up against the opening weeks of The Big Bang Theory, I still wish that it had been scheduled for 8:00. It’s a family friendly concept backed by a powerful name in Marvel that’s on a network where genre entertainment has found a nice home; The Gifted is the type of show that could become a lead-in for FOX for years to come, so having it shoved to 9:00 feels like the network is cutting it off at the knees. And while Lucifer has done some solid business for FOX, I’m not sure if it’s strong enough to lead into a project that could be important to the network’s future. It would’ve made more sense, at least to me, to have steady, fairly reliable Lucifer at 9:00, as its procedural leanings make it open to sampling from the casual TV audience The Gifted could draw and its status as a known quantity would take some pressure off of its lead-in. Instead, FOX is asking The Gifted to build off its lead-in, which isn’t as common an occurrence as you might think.
