FOX Finally Got Their Comedies Right
Comedy scheduling on FOX seems so much better this season and I’ll tell you why:
Keeping the Sunday comedy block as it was this Spring (Bob’s Burgers/The Simpsons/Brooklyn Nine-Nine/Family Guy/Last Man on Earth) makes sense because they have performed solidly in that line-up the last couple of months. Also they all skew male in the 18-49 demo.
– Putting new series Grandfathered/The Grinder on Tuesdays at 8 together makes perfect sense because FOX always has comedies on Tuesdays for one thing. Also pairing up the two new comedies that star 51-year old recognizable male leads making their TV comebacks is just obvious. And putting them at 8 opposite The Voice may seem silly to some but The Voice isn’t the powerhouse it once was and it targets a very different group of people. Those that grew up watching Full House and those that watch singing competitions aren’t often the same people. It makes more sense than putting their follow-up at 8 because…
– Although some people think Scream Queens would give Grandfathered and The Grinder a boost, which it probably would to be fair, you would have to put Scream Queens after 9 for a couple of reasons. For one, it is a horror-comedy and inspired by teen slasher flicks like Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Cry Wolf and Sorority Row (it even has Scream in the title and revolves around girls in a Sorority). It’s expected to be quite bloody and literally every episode will feature someone dying. Also, why schedule Scream Queens – whose primary audience will be young adults – against The Voice – whose primary audience IS young adults – because that would likely hurt both shows. Scream Queens has the pull of Ariana Grande, Nick Jonas and Emma Roberts, but The Voice has Pharrell, Xtina, Blake and Adam.
– Leaving New Girl and The Guide to Surviving Life until midseason, also an intelligent decision. Scream Queens was always intended for the fall so it was between New Girl/The Guide to Survivng Life and Grandfathered/The Grinder for what would be in the Fall. New Girl started production on season 5 directly after season 4 wrapped because Zooey Deschanel is pregnant but they aren’t working that into the show and wanted to film as many episodes as they could before her baby bump was impossible to hide. Production will then go on hiatus until after she has had the baby and is ready to start filming again meaning there’s a chance that there won’t be enough shows in the can to air New Girl through to the Holidays. On top of that it has recently been hitting series lows which definitely isn’t helped by all of the pre-emptions, hiatuses and Holiday breaks, so airing uninterrupted from January to Upfronts 2016 may help ratings-wise. The Guide to Surviving Life can only really work with New Girl, the biggest reason being that it doesn’t fit anywhere in the Fall schedule. It may work on the Sunday line-up but why give either Brooklyn Nine-Nine or Last Man on Earth a shorter season and delay these solid performers until midseason? Best to get as many episodes of each in the can so they hit syndication-worthy numbers earlier rather than risk the longevity of them to accomodate a new series. Also both The Guide to Survivng Life and New Girl are shows featuring young ensemble casts so they fit together. The Guide to Surviving Life could just be another post-New Girl flop like this season’s short-lived Weird Loners (which if you didn’t get to see it, check it out on Hulu now before it’s gone forever).
– And finally, of course delay Bordertown to late midseason because no one really has high expectations for the series. The only place on the schedule it will really fit will be following Family Guy at 9:30 on Sunday. So what the network should do is air a rarely-interrupted full season of The Last Man on Earth for it to end roughly March or April, and follow it up with Borderland getting a couple of months behind Family Guy before Upfronts roll around.
