THURSDAY
CRAIG: 8:00 Lethal Weapon; 9:00 Lucifer
SHILO: 8:00 Orville; 9:00 Lucifer
CRAIG: If ABC and TGIT is TV for smart and powerful women, FOX could take this chance and make Thursday nights a destination for scrappy dudes. Lethal Weapon, I think, could hold its own on another night, as you pointed out before; the newly-relocated-to-L.A. Lucifer, I believe, would be a perfect companion series. Yes, a FOX-owned series might be a more likely choice to happen, but this is a night I would watch, at least.
SHILO: Where FOX is trying to eventize each X-Files season, I don’t think we’ll be seeing it in the fall, as much as they might want it there; they didn’t put Prison Break or 24 in the fall this past season, so there’s precedent for them to hold their reboots. Instead, I think they’ll promote it throughout the fall and premiere it in early 2018, making room for straight-to-series drama Orville, about a spaceship crew 3000 years in the future, to premiere in the fall. Being that Orville is from Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy), FOX will want to treat it fairly well and it has self-start potential given his involvement; his name might not have the power the Monday dramas, but there’s enough name recognition there that putting Orville at 8:00 and using another genre show with it wouldn’t be that bad, at least on paper. For 9:00 I went with Lucifer, which is comedic enough to work with Orville and sturdy enough thanks to its procedural elements that a Thursday slot wouldn’t be bad news. Additionally, having aired on Mondays, Lucifer has dealt with football before and even if Orville underperforms, bringing The X-Files circa midseason should give it a boost should ratings suffer.
