THURSDAY
CRAIG’S PREDICTIONS: 8:00 Lethal Weapon; 9:00 Lucifer
ACTUAL SCHEDULE: 8:00 Gotham; 9:00 The Orville
SHILO: I knew FOX was going to split up Gotham and Lucifer, and I wouldn’t have been shocked if one had been used as a lead-in, but having both lead into the new dramas this fall is surprising. I get the logic of having Gotham leading into The Orville, and of using The Orville as the show against This Is Us, but I think if FOX is going to have problems out of a night in the fall, this will be the most problematic. Gotham will likely lose some ground with the move, The Orville is a genre that hasn’t worked on broadcast in quite a while, and the tone differential between Gotham and The Orville might be too much to overcome, not to mention the fact that launching a new genre show up against both football and a newly relocated Arrow could cut into what might already be a niche audience. I know that Seth MacFarlane has his own audience, but if any new FOX show this fall is vulnerable, it’s The Orville.
CRAIG: I get what FOX is trying to do — a “dude night” to counter TGIT on ABC, the lineup that includes Will and Grace and This Is Us on NBC, and the brainiacs of The Big Bang Theory. I’d imagine Warner Bros. is happy to get their fourth season of Gotham even if it might be fed to the Shonda gods on Thursday nights; I have no idea how these two shows are going to go together, though, as they seem wildly different in tone. I’d almost sooner see The Orville on following the two animated shows on Sunday.
I also wonder how a “dude night” will do in the months when Football is still a thing on Thursday nights. Either way, bless FOX for trying, even though they’ll probably be a consistent #4 in the ratings on Thursdays for a while.
