Welcome to a kinda normal Upfronts!
If you’ve been around Foolish Watcher for a while now, you know that the Upfronts is the week or so when the networks introduce their upcoming schedules to advertisers in hopes that they will be wooed into buying commercial airtime. It’s the networks’ big dog-and-pony show, one that has been diminishing in recent years thanks to the pandemic, the strikes, and the decline of network broadcast television’s stranglehold on the audience in general. But this year, there is nothing holding the networks back from introducing a full fall schedule.
Like the other networks, Fox isn’t making a lot of big moves this season: they’ve only added three new fall series. That said, they are projecting a lot of confidence in these new shows. One has already been renewed for a second season, and another has been awarded the plum post-Super Bowl spot. The third new series is something of a left turn for Fox, a wide diversion from their typical action thriller series or cheeky reality competitions, but if you don’t take big swings sometimes, you’ll miss the big hits.
Schedule
MONDAY
7/8 p.m.: 9-1-1 Lone Star (September 23)
8/9 p.m.: RESCUE: HI-SURF (September 22)
TUESDAY
7/8 p.m.: Accused (October 1)
8/9 p.m.: MURDER IN A SMALL TOWN (September 24)
WEDNESDAY
7/8 p.m.: The Masked Singer (September 25)
8/9 p.m.: The Floor (September 25)
THURSDAY
7/8 p.m.: Hell’s Kitchen (September 26)
8/9 p.m.: Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test (September 26)
FRIDAY
7/8 p.m.: FOX College Football Friday/FOX College Hoops/FOX UFL (September 13)
SATURDAY
7/8 p.m.: Fox Sports Saturday
SUNDAY
6/7 p.m.: NFL on Fox
6:30/7:30 p.m.: The OT
7/8 p.m.: The Simpsons (September 29)
7:30 p.m.: UNIVERSAL BASIC GUYS (September 8)
8/9 p.m.: Bob’s Burgers (September 8)
8:30/9:30 p.m.: Krapopolis (September 29)
New Fall Shows
RESCUE: Hi-SURF
Official synopsis:
From prolific, award-winning executive producer/director John Wells (Shameless, The West Wing, ER) and executive producer/writer Matt Kester (Animal Kingdom, Outsiders), pulse-pounding Hawaii lifeguard drama Rescue: HI-Surf follows the personal and professional lives of the heavy-water lifeguards who patrol and protect the North Shore of O’ahu—the most famous and dangerous stretch of coastline in the world. Each episode will feature these dedicated, heroic, and adrenaline-seeking first-responders saving lives in the difficult and often life-threatening conditions of Hawaii’s Seven Mile Miracle.
T’s Take:
Baywatch set in Hawaii and taking itself Very Seriously. Fox is big excited for this one, and is giving it the post-Super Bowl spot for a special episode.
MURDER IN A SMALL TOWN
Official synopsis:
Based on the Edgar Award-winning, nine-book “Karl Alberg” series by acclaimed novelist L.R. Wright, and starring Rossif Sutherland (Reign, The Handmaid’s Tale) and Kristin Kreuk (Smallville, Beauty and the Beast), Murder in a Small Town follows Karl Alberg (Sutherland), who moves to a quiet coastal town to soothe a psyche that has been battered by big-city police work. But this gentle paradise has more than its share of secrets, and Karl will need to call upon all the skills that made him a world-class detective in solving the murders that, even in this seemingly idyllic setting, continue to wash up on his shore.
T’s Take:
Sherlock Holmes but in the Pacific Northwest and make him sensitive and a little bookish and drag him back into the dark world of murder mystery against his will while he woos a sensitive librarian. Also, bonus James Cromwell! This feels out of character for Fox — they aren’t usually in the moody mystery business — but it might work nicely as a companion to the renewed Accused.
UNIVERSAL BASIC GUYS
Official synopsis:
From creators Adam and Craig Malamut (Sports Friends, Game of Zones, The Champions), animated comedy Universal Basic Guys centers on two brothers, Mark and Hank Hoagies, who lose their jobs to automation and are given $3,000 a month in a new basic income program. Now, they’re using their free time and free money to find purpose in a world where they’re no longer needed.
T’s Take:
I mean, it’s a new animated Fox comedy; what more needs to be said? Fox seems excited about this one, too, as they’ve already renewed it for a second season. All that said, though the summary doesn’t give much, nor does the trailer, I’m always down for a Philadelphia accent, which is the funniest accent.
Midseason
DOc
Official synopsis:
Based on the globally acclaimed Italian series, Doc — Nelle tue mani, which was created and is produced by Lux Vide, a Fremantle Company, and featured Simona Tabasco and Beatrice Grannò of The White Lotus, FOX’s Doc is a new medical drama starring Molly Parker (House Of Cards) as the hard-charging, brilliant Dr. Amy Elias, Chief of Internal and Family Medicine at Westside Hospital in Minneapolis. After a brain injury erases the last eight years of her life, Amy must navigate an unfamiliar world where she has no recollection of patients she’s treated, colleagues she’s crossed, the soulmate she divorced, the man she now loves and the tragedy that caused her to push everyone away. She can rely only on her estranged 17-year-old daughter, whom she remembers as a 9-year-old, and a handful of devoted friends, as she struggles to continue practicing medicine, despite having lost nearly a decade of knowledge and experience.
T’s Take:
A talented doctor loses her memories of the past 8 years? WHERE DO I SIGN UP?
Going Dutch
Official synopsis:
From executive producers Denis Leary (The Moodys, Rescue Me), Jack Leary (Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll) and Joel Church-Cooper (Brockmire), and starring Denis Leary, single-camera comedy Going Dutch ), centers on an arrogant, loudmouth U.S. Army Colonel, who, after an epically unfiltered rant, is reassigned to the Netherlands, where he is punished with a command position at the least important army base in the world. After serving with distinction in every warzone of the last three decades, he now finds himself in charge of a base with no guns, no weapons, and no tactical purpose. Instead, it has a Michelin-star-level commissary, top-notch bowling alley and the best (and only) fromagerie in the U.S. Army. Surrounded by a diverse group of underdogs, the colonel tries to reinstall military discipline and professionalism with the help of the base’s previous interim leader, who just happens to be his estranged daughter.
T’s Take:
U.S. military guy goes to woke European base; hilarity ensues.
Cancellations
- Housebroken
Renewals
- 9-1-1: Lone Star
- Accused
- Alert: Missing Persons Unit
- Animal Control
- Bob’s Burgers
- Crime Scene Kitchen
- The Cleaning Lady
- Family Guy
- Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars
- The Great North
- Grimsburg
- Hell’s Kitchen
- Krapopolis
- Lego Masters
- MasterChef
- The Masked Singer
- Name That Tune
- Next Level Chef
- The Simpsons
- Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test
Shows Still Up in the Air
- America’s Most Wanted
- Farmer Wants a Wife
- Kitchen Nightmares
- Masterchef Junior
- Snake Oil
- So You Think You Can Dance
- Stars on Mars
- TMZ Investigates
- We Are Family
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