SHILO: 8:00 Hell’s Kitchen; 9:00 The Exorcist
CRAIG: 8:00 Hell’s Kitchen; 9:00 The Exorcist
SHILO: For much of the pre-upfront death march, I assumed that FOX would use Rosewood here, given that they haven’t syndicated a procedural they wholly own since Bones premiered in 2005. Rosewood might be microscopically rated at this point, but it could conceivably have a syndication market (BET, TV One, etc.) and its compatibility with Hell’s Kitchen is respectable enough that it’d allow FOX to worry about other slots this season. However, with Rosewood star Jaina Lee Ortiz taking a recurring role on USA’s Shooter and the show not getting much in the way of renewal buzz, I think its position on the network will gave way to The Exorcist. That show, which signed off all the way back in December, had a small but loyal audience and FOX seems to love it enough that, if it gets renewed, it’s going to be on in the fall. I have to wonder, though, whether the decline the show takes from being a serialized production on a nine-month hiatus would make a renewal worth it, no matter how much FOX might be taken with it. That being said, FOX doesn’t exactly have a whole lot of options here unless they go unscripted, so maybe they just want to take a flier on something they love and see if the buzz the show had can grow if they put The Exorcist up for streaming somewhere.
CRAIG: I think you might be on to something, and that Exorcist may live to see another season… although, I’d imagine that once the vampire drama The Passage becomes a thing, it could take over the timeslot. It would be so nice, as someone who can remember The X-Files’ rise to prominence, to see another FOX genre hit on Friday nights.
