Fox: Follow the Bouncing Bones
David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel in Bones by Art Streiber/Fox
In recent years the Fox network has ended each season on such a high (thanks to hot franchises like
American Idol,
24 and
House) that we almost forget how badly Fox struggles to get traction in the fall.
Perhaps sensing another fall disaster in the making, with two dark new dramas threatening to drag down its Monday and Tuesday lineups, Fox has rejiggered its fall lineup by postponing the murky
New Amsterdam (about an immortal detective), originally intended for Tuesdays at 8 pm/ET, until midseason. In its place goes
Bones, shifting from a tough Wednesday slot (9/8c) where this appealing procedural would have faced CBS'
Criminal Minds, ABC's high-profile
Grey's Anatomy spin-off
Private Practice, NBC's
Bionic Woman and CW's
Gossip Girl.
This makes Tuesday a pretty powerful night for Fox, with the often underappreciated
Bones leading into the mega-hit
House. Given the level of angst I tend to hear from
Bones fans who can't help themselves from expecting the worst, having been burned in the past by Fox's treatment of their favorite shows, I hope this settles their worries. This is good news. Fox really is looking out for
Bones' best interests. (And don't worry that Fox year after year threatens to move this show to Fridays at midseason. I'll believe it when I see it.)
On the other hand, unless you're a fan of Fox's brand of reality TV, the network more or less goes dark from Wednesday at 9 pm/ET until Sunday, when the animated comedies kick in. Filling the
Bones slot on Wednesdays, in the hour after Fox's
Back to You/
Til Death sitcom combo, is Gordon Ramsay's
Kitchen Nightmares. Thursdays belong to
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? and
Don't Forget the Lyrics! (the second surprise-hit karaoke game of the summer to make the fall schedule, along with NBC's
The Singing Bee). Fridays will eventually be the home of the docu-soap
Nashville and the
American Band music contest. Saturday, as always, is crime time, with
Cops and
America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back.
Is Fox taking the cheap and easy way out? Probably. But it's hard to blame them for going the cheesy game-show route on Thursday, after years of fruitlessly throwing expensive scripted series up against the other networks' big hits. Fridays have for years been a notorious graveyard for Fox, so these music-themed reality projects make about as much low-impact sense as anything (and if either one pops at all, it will be a step up).
And where
New Amsterdam is concerned, this moody high-concept drama is probably a risk whenever or wherever it airs, but it may stand a better shot at getting sampled if it's launched in the winter or spring, where it can be promoted and possibly positioned alongside shows like
24,
Idol and the eagerly awaited
Sarah Connor Chronicles.
But if all of this jockeying merely results in
Bones getting a cushier berth this fall, and the viewer getting a better two-hour block of Tuesday TV in the bargain, who am I to complain?
