This fall, broadcast networks have put much of their marketing time and budget into promoting new dark dramas, crime thrillers and family comedies.
But in an increasingly cluttered market of TV content both on-air and off, TV networks find themselves focusing more and more on clarifying their message as well as branding blocks of content.
Each of the broadcast networks is putting most of its marketing muscle behind its biggest bets in fall TV. Below Brief takes a look at Fox’s September strategy.
Fox:
Most of Fox’s promotional force is going behind new comedy “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” which will air Tuesday nights in a comedy block with the already-controversial “Dads,” and dark thriller “Sleepy Hollow.”
Fox is placing an early bet on “Sleepy Hollow,” which comes from Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the writing and producing team behind Fox’s cult hit “Fringe” and blockbuster film franchise “Star Trek.” The show will be first out of the gate on Monday, September 16, at 9:00 p.m., marking the start of the fall season.
Fox’s Tuesday night comedy lineup is all new from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. – when “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “Dads” will air – and returning from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m., with “New Girl” and “The Mindy Project.” Fox is the only broadcast net scheduling comedy on Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m., so that could give Fox an advantage as it seeks to attract young men with “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” – starring Andy Samberg, of “Saturday Night Live” fame, and Andre Braugher – and “Dads,” which comes from “Family Guy” auteur Seth MacFarlane and stars Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi. While critics seem to have given the nod to “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” they already hate “Dads,” accusing the pilot of racism.
Fox has a lot of eggs in the Andy Samberg basket. Samberg and his show got top billing in Fox’s comedy promo strategy, with the network devoting one entire night of primetime in August to promos for “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” and even letting Samberg take over Fox Broadcasting’s YouTube page:
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The YouTube takeover opened up into “Brooklyn’s Finest,” a section of the page dedicated to introducing the cast, as well as featuring its “NYPD ID” promo.
Although Fox is focusing on Samberg, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” is really an ensemble comedy. Fox has been introducing each member of the cast throughout summer via its clever key art.
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“Sleepy Hollow,” also featuring a male lead, is a modern re-telling of the Headless Horseman and Ichabod Crane. Fox has gone the opposite route with that show: aiming for dark mystery on Monday nights to contrast with its comedy-filled Tuesdays. “Sleepy Hollow’s” dark feel and male leads contrast with the rest of its timeslot’s female-centric content, which includes ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars,” CBS’ “2 Broke Girls,” The CW’s “Beauty and the Beast” and NBC’s “The Voice.”
“MasterChef Junior” joins the Friday lineup on Fox in attempt to expand Gordon Ramsay’s successful “MasterChef” franchise. J.J. Abrams’ “Almost Human” launches in November as a lead-in to “Sleepy Hollow,” and family military comedy “Enlisted” premieres on Fridays in January 2014.
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