I must say I am very pleased ...
Question: I must say I am very pleased to finally know Fox's mid-season plans. However, could it be any more different from the mid-season schedule from way back in May? While the team-up of
Prison Break and
24 gets me very excited about Monday nights, I am sorely disappointed in the placement of
Bones. Such a great show deserves to get that
American Idol boost on Tuesdays. Instead, the network does the complete opposite and pits it against a juggernaut like
Lost. I realize that it still has the
American Idol results show as its lead-in, but that certainly didn't make the mediocre
Life on a Stick a hit last season. Also, though I never cared for the show, is
Killer Instinct officially canceled now that
Trading Spouses resides in its time slot? I hope you can clear these things up for me, Matt.
Answer: I'll do my best. First off, I can't for the life of me figure out why Fox even bothers to announce a mid-season schedule in May, because there are so many variables as a new season gets underway that what looks good on paper in May almost never comes to pass by December. As for the
Bones move, which generated a flurry of agitated mail: The downside is that, for the first few weeks of the
Idol season,
Bones will air opposite
Lost (although it's hard to say how many
Lost originals there will be until February) and
Veronica Mars (ditto), and that is a tough VCR/DVR dilemma, no question. But the game plan, once the classic "results" show kicks in (airing, as usual, at 9 pm/ET) is for
Bones to move at that point to Wednesdays at 8 and for some mid-season comedy (probably
The Loop) to pair with
Idol. I'm thinking, depending, of course, on what the other networks end up doing in the still-fluid mid-season shuffle, that
Bones should fare better on Wednesdays at 8 (currently a curiously empty time period) than it has been doing on Tuesdays, where it's getting whomped in the procedural horse race by the amazingly resurgent
NCIS. The other point to make is that Fox was absolutely right to keep
House where it was. Yes, it would be nice if every show as deserving as
Bones could benefit from that Tuesday post-
Idol catbird seat, but this is a business, and why in the world would Fox want to risk moving one of its best and most popular dramas, especially (in the original scenario) to an earlier time period on a different night? The
Prison Break/
24 combo is a much better idea. As for
Killer Instinct: I'm pretty sure last Friday's episode was the last ever. At least I hope so. It's not expected back.
