Posted at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 15

“American Idol” will be back next spring on Fox, but the network is cutting the hour-long results episodes to 30 minutes due to the talent show’s rating decline.

That was probably the biggest news during Fox’s upfront presentation on Thursday, when Fox entertainment chairman Peter Ligouri announced plans for the fall and spring TV seasons in New York.

Despite the ratings slip, “Idol” has helped Fox to finish the current season as the most popular network among all viewers, a title held by CBS for the past five years.

As for the fall season, Fox is introducing only two new series—the fantasy thriller “Fringe” from J.J. Abrams and the comedy “Do Not Disturb.” Four other new programs will debut in the spring when “American Idol” returns.

“Fringe,” “Bones”—woo! it's back—“Prison Break” and “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader” will begin their fall seasons the week of Aug. 25, according to a Fox press release.

Fans of “24,” which wasn’t shown this spring because of the strike, get a two-hour movie on Nov. 23 to set the stage for Season 7 in January 2009, according to a Fox press release. In the film, Jack Bauer battles a crisis overseas while the U.S. prepares for a new president on inauguration day. For more on the "24," check out what The Watcher found out.

Fox’s fall prime-time schedule
Monday
7 p.m.: “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”
8 p.m.: “Prison Break”

Tuesday
7 p.m.: “House”
8 p.m.: “Fringe”

Wednesday
7 p.m.: “Bones”
8 p.m.: “’Til Death”
8:30 p.m.: “Do Not Disturb”

Thursday
7 p.m.: “The Moment of Truth”
8 p.m.: “Kitchen Nightmares”

Friday
7 p.m.: “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?”
8 p.m.: “Don’t Forget the Lyrics!”

Saturday
7 p.m.: “COPS”
7:30 p.m.: “COPS”
8 p.m.: “America’s Most Wanted: America Fights Back”

Sunday
6 p.m.: “The OT” (NFL Post-Game)
7 p.m.: “The Simpsons”
7:30 p.m.: “King of the Hill”
8 p.m.: “Family Guy”
8:30 p.m.: “American Dad”

Go to the jump for the January-Spring schedule, and full descriptions of Fox's new shows.

Fox’s January/Spring prime-time schedule
Monday
7 p.m.: “Dollhouse”
8 p.m.: “24”

Tuesday
7 p.m.: “American Idol”
8 p.m.: “Fringe”

Wednesday
7 p.m.: “House”
8 p.m.: “American Idol” results
8:30 p.m. TBA comedy

Thursday
7 p.m.: “Hell’s Kitchen”
8 p.m.: “Secret Millionaire”

Friday
7 p.m.: “Bones”
8 p.m.: “’Til Death”
8:30 p.m. “Do Not Disturb”

Saturday
7 p.m.: “COPS”
7:30 p.m.: “COPS”
8 p.m.: “America’s Most Wanted: America Fights Back”

Sunday
6 p.m.: Comedy encores
6:30 p.m.: Comedy encores
7 p.m.: “The Simpsons”
7:30 p.m.: “King of the Hill” (Jan.)/“Sit Down, Shut Up” (spring)
8 p.m.: “Family Guy”
8:30 p.m.: “American Dad” (Jan.)/“The Cleveland Show” (spring)

Here are Fox’s descriptions of its new series:

Fall premieres

Fringe
When an international flight lands at Boston’s Logan Airport and the passengers and crew have all died grisly deaths, FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) is called in to investigate. After her partner, Special Agent John Scott (Mark Valley), is nearly killed during the investigation, a desperate Olivia searches frantically for someone to help, leading her to Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble), our generation’s Einstein. There’s only one catch: he’s been institutionalized for the last 20 years, and the only way to question him requires pulling his estranged son Peter (Joshua Jackson) in to help. When Olivia’s investigation leads her to manipulative corporate executive Nina Sharp (Blair Brown), our unlikely trio along with fellow FBI agents Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick), Charlie Francis (Kirk Acevedo) and Astrid Farnsworth (Jasika Nicole) will discover that what happened on Flight 627 is only a small piece of a larger, more shocking truth.

Do Not Disturb (working title)
The hilarious workplace comedy is set at one of New York City’s hottest and hippest hotels: The Inn. Named one of the Big Apple’s “10 Best Places to Stay,” The Inn is just that—the “in” place to be, with its chic décor, stylish staff and celebrity clientele. Behind the scenes, however, the upstairs/downstairs dynamic tells quite a different story. The hotel’s top-notch reputation and sophisticated look is due in large part to Neal (Jerry O’Connell)—at least in his opinion. Although The Inn’s charismatic owner R.J. (Robert Wagner) takes all the credit, Neal is the egotistical, hyper-stylish, detail-oriented general manager who will do whatever it takes to keep the hotel and its employees up to his standards. Rhonda (Niecy Nash) is the head of Human Resources who also keeps Neal’s demands in check. She’s brash, fabulous and brutally honest and runs the HR department from her bullpen downstairs with a set of rules that are all her own. Rhonda does her best to keep the back of the house in line and the front of the house out of trouble. At the front desk handling check-in while wearing 6-inch Manolos is Nicole (Molly Stanton), an aging model who is svelte, cynical and slightly starving. Fresh from Nebraska is Jason (Brando Eaton), the naïve bellman who would prefer to work behind-the-scenes, but was hired to show off his chiseled face and perfect pecs at the front of the hotel. The downstairs staff includes Molly (Jolene Purdy), a reservations clerk who dreams of pop-singer stardom as much as she craves to be part of the action upstairs; and Larry (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), the head of housekeeping who spends more time on the phone cleaning up his messes at home than he does cleaning up after the guests upstairs.

Spring premieres

Dollhouse
Echo (Eliza Dushku) is an “Active,” a member of a highly illegal and underground group who have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas. Confined to a secret facility known as the “Dollhouse,” Echo and the other Actives including Sierra (Dichen Lachman) and Victor (Enver Gjokaj) carry out engagements assigned by Adelle (Olivia Williams), one of the Dollhouse leaders. The engagements cater to the wealthy, powerful and connected, and require the Actives to immerse themselves in all manner of scenarios—romantic, criminal, uplifting, dangerous, comical and the occasional “pro bono” good deed. After each scenario, Echo, always under the watchful eye of her handler Boyd (Harry Lennix), returns to the mysterious Dollhouse where her thoughts, feelings and experiences are erased by Topher (Fran Kranz), the Dollhouse’s genius programmer. Echo enters the next scenario with no memory of before. Or does she? As the series progresses, FBI Agent Paul Smith (Tahmoh Penikett) pieces together clues that lead him closer to the Dollhouse, while Echo stops forgetting, her memories begin to return and she slowly pieces together her mysterious past. “Dollhouse” revolves around Echo’s blossoming self-awareness and her desire to discover her true identity. But with each new engagement, comes a new memory and increased danger inside and outside the Dollhouse. From Joss Whedon, creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Firefly.”

Secret Millionaire
America’s wealthiest individuals are taken from their lavish lifestyles, sprawling mansions and private planes and placed undercover into some of the most impoverished neighborhoods in America. Challenged with living on minimum wage, the millionaires will immerse themselves in situations beyond their comprehension. They will work side-by-side with community members and befriend those in need to decide who should ultimately receive their gifts of a lifetime. On the final day, the Secret Millionaires meet with the chosen recipients and reveal their true identity and intention: to give them at least $100,000 of their own money and to change their lives forever.

The Cleveland Show (working title)
In this animated comedy, Cleveland Brown (Mike Henry) gets a second chance at love with his high school crush, Nancy. Cleveland and Cleveland Jr. move to Stoolbend, Va., to join Nancy and her family. Once in Stoolbend, Cleveland has a few surprises in store for him, including a flirtatious new stepdaughter, a 5-year-old stepson who loves the ladies, as well as a collection of neighbors that includes a loudmouth redneck couple, a British family seemingly stuck in the Victorian era and a family of bears living at the end of the block.

Sit Down, Shut Up (working title)
This animated/live action comedy focuses on the lives of eight staff members at a high school in a small northeastern fishing town (Go Baiters!) who never lose sight of the fact that the children must always come second. Sue Sezno (Kenan Thompson), a woman who frequently says “no,” is the acting principal of the school. Then there’s Vice Principal Stuart Prozackian (Will Forte), who has a terrifically positive and upbeat attitude ... possibly from the performance-enhancing medication he’s been secretly put on by the other teachers. There is one educator who feels the focus should be on academics, but despite the old adage, at this school, those who canteach, teach gym—and that’s where Larry Slimp (Jason Bateman) has been exiled to. Immensely frustrated, Larry nurses a crush on science teacher Miracle Grohe (Maria Bamford), a woman whose superficial grasp on science is balanced by her superficial grasp on spirituality. Rounding out the staff is the aging German teacher Willard Deutschebog (Henry Winkler), a deeply defeated man whose yearbook quotation reads “If I believed in reincarnation, I’d kill myself tonight.” Uptight Helen Klench (Cheri Oteri) is a librarian whose life’s work in research and archiving can now be surpassed by the average Google search from the average cell phone. Proud Andrew Sapien (Nick Kroll) is the flamboyant drama teacher. Ennis Hofftard (Will Arnett) is a fellow teacher and a self-obsessed body builder who yearns to be thought of as a “cool dude” by his students. And finally there’s Happy (Tom Kenny), the plotting secretive custodian who’s assumed to be Hispanic despite the fact that his real name is Muhannad Sabeeh Fa’ach Nuaba.

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451600969e200e55229977d8833

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference No. 1 Fox trims 'Idol,' adds just 2 new fall shows:

Post a comment