Fox is taking its success with Empire to heart, ordering more “ambitious dramas,” four new comedies and an event series for its upcoming slate.
Dana Walden and Gary Newman, co-chairs and CEOs at Fox Television Group, presented the network’s upfront pitch on Monday, stressing that the success of Empire would lead in to more “bold creative swings.”
American Idol, however, did not make the cut, and its upcoming 15th season will be its last. The final season will debut in January with the judges panel of Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick, Jr, remaining intact, but with lots of surprise guest appearances in the works.
The “bold creative swings” theme also includes this coming January’s event of Grease: Live, the previously announced musical production Fox has planned, with Julianne Hough and Vanessa Hudgens set to star. The live musical will air Jan. 31, 2016.
Also in that group is the previously announced anthology series Scream Queens from Ryan Murphy, which mixes comedy and horror to create a series of murders on a college campus.
More dramas are added to the schedule with the reboot of The X-Files and the previously picked-up Minority Report and Rosewood. X-Files will premiere next January with a six-episode run, bringing back David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as their roles of Mulder and Scully. Minority Report has been adapted from the Steven Spielberg film and Rosewood is a medical drama about a pathologist in Miami who tends to find the clues everyone else has missed. Rosewood earned the post-Empire slot on Wednesday nights, indicating that the new drama has the confidence of Fox execs.
Also on the drama lineup are Lucifer, a DC Entertainment series about the fallen angel, and The Frankenstein Code, about a former sheriff who is brought back to life by two young scientists.
As for comedies, Fox is relying on well-known names to bring audiences in, with John Stamos in Grandfathered and Rob Lowe in The Grinder. Grandfathered is about “the ultimate bachelor” who finds out he not only has a child, but a grandchild as well. The Grinder also stars Fred Savage about a famous TV lawyer (Lowe) who has to move back home after his series is canceled and join his family’s law firm with his brother (Savage).
The Guide to Surviving Life and the animated satire Bordertown are the other two new comedies for Fox this fall, the first of which is an ensemble comedy told from the perspective of a recent college grad.
Check out the trailers to Fox’s new shows below:
Minority Report:
Grandfathered:
Lucifer:
The Frankenstein Code:
The Grinder:
Rosewood:
Bordertown:
Fox’s fall 2015 schedule:
Monday:
Gotham
Minority Report
Tuesday:
Grandfathered
The Grinder
Scream Queens
Wednesday:
Rosewood
Empire
Thursday:
Bones
Sleepy Hollow
Friday:
Masterchef Junior
World’s Funniest
Sunday:
NFL On Fox
The OT/Bob’s Burgers
The Simpsons
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Family Guy
The Last Man On Earth
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