Fox Offers an Early Glimpse of Its New Season
The Fox network Wednesday night got a jump on next weekâs announcements of new fall television shows by releasing the details of the four new dramas and five new comedies it has ordered for the next television season.
Fox is picking up an unusually high number of new shows, partly because it has seen its momentum in prime time slacken over the past two years as its longtime bellwether show, âAmerican Idol,â has suffered ratings declines.
So Fox is turning to some prominent television creators, including J.J. Abrams (âLostâ), Michael Schur (âParks and Recreationâ), Bill Lawrence (âScrubsâ) and Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci ( the âTransformerâ movies) for its new roster of shows.
New stars for Fox include Andy Samberg, Andre Braugher, Greg Kinnear, Seth Green, Alexis Blendel, and Terry OâQuinn.
Mr. Samberg, the former âSaturday Night Liveâ star, will headline a new comedy with Mr. Braugher (âHomicideâ) called âBrooklyn Nine-Nine,â set in a police precinct and created by Mr. Schur and his âParksâ partner Dan Goor.
Another comedy, âDads,â stars Mr. Green, along with Giovanni Ribisi, as single guys whose lives are upended when their dads, Martin Mull and Peter Riegert, move in. Seth MacFarlane of âFamily Guyâ is one of the creators.
âUs and Themâ is an American adaptation of the British comedy hit âGavin and Staceyâ and stars Ms. Blendel (âGilmore Girlsâ) and Jason Ritter (âParenthoodâ) as a couple trying to survive their chaotic friends and family.
âSurviving Jackâ is a new comedy from Mr. Lawrence, and it stars Christopher Meloni (âLaw & Order SVUâ) as a dad trying to raise a son in the 1990âs.
The last new comedy is âEnlistedâ which follows three brothers on a small Army base in Florida.
Fox managed to add one new successful drama this season in âThe Followingâ but it has holes to fill and four new hour-long entries to try to fill them.
Mr. Kinnear will star in a series called âRake,â an adaptation of an Australian series about a gifted criminal defense lawyer with a self-destructive private life. Peter Tolan (âRescue Meâ) is one of the creators.
The new drama from the prolific Mr. Abrams is âAlmost Human,â about police work 35 years in the future when cops are paired with lifelike androids, one of whom, a female, seems to have an emotional connection to her partner, who hates robots.
âGang Relatedâ is another crime drama, but a contemporary one, set in the world of a Los Angeles gang task force.
Maybe the most intriguing new Fox drama is âSleepy Hollow,â which is a contemporary reworking of the Washington Irving story, with Ichabod Crane brought back to life to help solve a centuries-old mystery that threatens the future of humanity. It was created by Mr. Kurtzman and Mr. Orci.
Fox will announce its complete new schedule next Monday.