Fox Fall Schedule: Empire Gets Lethal Companion, 24 Scores Super Slot, Prison Break Held to Midseason
Fox is the latest broadcaster to unveil its schedule for the 2016-17 TV season, and herewith is the major headline: Revivals of 24 and Prison Break are being held until midseason, with the former snagging the granddaddy of all launching pads.
24: Legacy will bow after Super Bowl 51 on Sunday, Feb. 5, before settling into its regular Monday-at-8 pm perch the following night. Prison Break, meanwhile, will take over Bones‘ new Thursday-at-9 pm timeslot sometime in early 2017.
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Another big midseason move: Lee Daniels’ new drama Star will bridge the gap between the fall and spring seasons of the writer-director’s original music juggernaut, Empire.
On the fall front, the new Lethal Weapon adaptation is knocking Rosewood out of its pre-Empire home on Wednesdays, sending the Morris Chestnut drama to Thursdays-at-8 pm, where it will lead into the final season of Bones; The Exorcist will terrorize Friday nights; and Jason Sudeikis’ animated/live-action hybrid comedy Son of Zorn will follow The Simpsons on Sunday.
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Fox’s revival of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, meanwhile, will air during Halloween week in October.
Joining 24: Legacy and Prison Break at midseason is Sleepy Hollow, as well as new dramas Pitch, Shots Fired and APB, as well rookie comedies Making History and The Mick.
All told, the Fox schedule looks like this; new shows are in CAPS, click for details.
MONDAY
8 pm Gotham
9 pm Lucifer
TUESDAY
8 pm Brooklyn Nine-Nine
8:30pm New Girl
9 pm Scream Queens
WEDNESDAY
8 pm LETHAL WEAPON (WATCH TRAILER)
9 pm Empire
THURSDAY
8 pm Rosewood
9 pm Bones
FRIDAY
8 pm Hell’s Kitchen
9 pm THE EXORCIST (WATCH TRAILER)
SATURDAY
Fox Sports Saturday
SUNDAY
7 pm NFL
7:30 pm Bob’s Burgers
8 pm The Simpsons
8:30 pm SON OF ZORN (WATCH TRAILER)
9 pm Family Guy
9:30 pm The Last Man on Earth
MIDSEASON SCHEDULE
MONDAY
8 pm 24: LEGACY (Gotham returns in spring)
9 pm APB (Lucifer returns in spring)
TUESDAY
8 pm New Girl/Brooklyn Nine-Nine
8:30pm THE MICK
9 pm KICKING & SCREAMING (PITCH takes over in spring)
WEDNESDAY
8 pm Lethal Weapon (SHOTS FIRED takes over in spring)
9 pm STAR (Empire returns in spring)
THURSDAY
8 pm Rosewood
9 pm PRISON BREAK
FRIDAY
8 pm MasterChef Junior
9 pm Sleepy Hollow
SATURDAY
Fox Sports Saturday
SUNDAY
7 pm Animation encores
7:30 pm Bob’s Burgers
8 pm The Simpsons
8:30 pm MAKING HISTORY (WATCH TRAILER)
9 pm Family Guy
9:30 pm The Last Man on Earth
NOT RETURNING NEXT SEASON: Bordertown, Cooper Barrett’s Guide to Surviving Life, Grandfathered, The Grinder, Knock Knock Live, Minority Report and Second Chance
So no word on The X-Files? it’s still not officially cancelled but also not renewed?
That’s up to Chris Carter and the stars.
I can’t believe Fox moved Bones timeslot again, unbelievable
Bones & Sleepy Hollow are all that I watch on Fox these days and I don’t like the look of any of their new shows so I’m guessing after this year I’ll be done with Fox.
You should give Rosewood a try (If they keep its light tone, not moving onto soap drama, of course). Catch the previous episodes, fun viewing..
I like Rosewood. Of course Morris is nice to watch but I like the show. Seems they keep bad shows like screem queens and get rid of good shows..
This is a better slot. Bones never ever belonged at 8. And it most likely wont be up against Scandal if ABC leaves that for mid season. I am actually happy. Since Bones is most likely ending in july we are not going to have to wait too long for it Plus it looks like they are running them pretty much in a row instead of six at once and then six later. Very happy with the change myself.
@kmw
I totally get it where your coming from, but another reason I really don’t like the timeslot is because it’ll definitely be going against Thursday Night Football. 😞
Yes but the football to me never affected them that bad. Lets face it no matter where they moved Bones it wouldn’t be much better than where they are now even Fridays probably wouldn’t help them now I will focus on the fact that FOX didn’t split their season like I feared they would.
who cares? its the final season, ratings wont matter
Exactly! They could stick it on at 2am, won’t make a difference, be happy with a finale season.
Just because it shouldn’t matter doesn’t meant that it doesn’t for Bones fans. And yes I am grateful Bones is getting a last season. Just because Bones is ending that doesn’t mean fans cannot care about how it is aired.
Prison Break is a long’s way off…Nothing excites me here except empire, simpsons and 24 legacy…which is also a long’s waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off
this actually looks like smart scheduling – shows are paired well together
One of my growing pet peeves is happening to Lucifer the splitting of the season. It is one of the reasons I stopped watching Agents of Shield. I really enjoyed Lucifer, but I might stop watching it. Also right now a growing thing on some shows is like Daredevil all the episodes drop at the same time, so a person can go crazy and watch all of the season in one setting,or watch a couple episodes and watch the full season over a couple of weeks.
Speaking of AOS,now that Agent Carter is cancelled, and the Most Wanted will not be picked up. I wonder what they will do for the mid-season show for it?
Only Netflix drops all the shows at once, that isn’t a growing trend at all. It went from Netflix to Netflix, Hulu and Amazon still do most shows weekly.
The growing trend is to, smartly, break the shows into two mini seasons, then have another show on in the middle. We get more TV this way. You also don’t need to guess when the show you like might be on or in a rerun.
NBC did it last summer with that Manson show too.
How did that work out for them?
Also they did online. It’s not like a network is going to stick on three episodes of a series of a show on every night for a week.
If you want to binge watch TV then wait until the season is over next May.
I wanted Prison Break this fall but it’s a gift we are getting this revival so I will patiently wait until mid season :)
First time in 15 years that there’s no American Idol to look forward to. Now the only Fox show that remotely interests me is 24. Good luck trying to find a series that matches Idol’s numbers, even in its lowest-rated season.
reality shows tend to attack mostly the brain dead low earners anyway
So there’s no regular Masterchef, just Junior this year?
Masterchef is (and always has been) a summer show. The new season premieres June 1st.
So Bones will likely end in December then?
Most likely And probably only one interruption for World Series. We aren’t going to have to wait very long for Bones to come back if they do indeed end In July. Really happy about time change as well
My hunch is they’ll hold the last four or so until February sweeps, since Drcember is usually a wasteland of reruns and specials anyway.
There is no space for Bones in Feb. If Bones comes back early to mid Sept they wont hit Dec at all.
You’re forgetting the World Series preemptions.
Not forgetting it that interruption will only be one week and may not affect them depending on how series goes. I still see their series finale in Dec
Glad Lucifer will return with a new season this fall. Hope Brooklyn Nine-Nine will do well against NCIS and The Flash at 8 pm first half hour. I knew they would save Prison Break for mid-season. I’ll check out Jason’s new show Son of Zorn.
It’s all ablaut Friday nights on Fox!
Fox managed to dig themselves out a hole this year. I’m sorry to say their digging another hole for this year. First and foremost you hire Damon Wayans Sr. for Lethal Weapon are you kidding me. The Exorcist franchise has been downhill ever since the second film. We also have three time travel shows this year.
Agreed, the pairing of the shows this season, flow right into one another seamlessly. Some are complaining about the splitting of the seasons into 2: get used to it, it’s becoming a standard practice for networks as opposed to the sporadic scheduling that can/will lead to low ratings. This common practice works for the Walking Dead, and it various other shows(Gotham, Agents of Shield & Once Upon a Time to name a few). If it works and helps viewership, especially with the key demo viewership, they’re gonna adapt to ensure those numbers.
I agree with other commenters, this looks like smart scheduling. Personally I prefer the split seasons, I’d rather see new episodes in back to back weeks rather than wait two to three weeks in between. I’m excited to see the trailers for star and son of zorn
Can’t believe 24: Legacy is getting the coveted post Super Bowl time slot.
I am stunned that they put Bones back in the fall but happy that they are seemingly go to do their episodes in a row. And even happier thy are moving back to 9. Pairing it with Rosewood is good too.
Is Danielle Campbell returning to prison break?
I had not even noticed that was her and I’ve watched it several times! Doubt that she would given that was more T-bag’s arc and this seems more focused on getting Michael back.
It’s so weird and sad to not have Idol on the schedule.
woah what, I totally thought making history was an hour long show. Wordd, it’s 30 minutes.
The schedule makes a lot of sense. Shows are paired well, not that I like most of them.
I also like how there is a fall, winter and spring schedule, we get more new shows that way.
I hope and pray that Bones does better than everyone, myself included, thinks it will, given it will be at 9 and the final season. It deserves to go out better than being behind Rosewood, IMO
Yes Rosewood isn’t the best pairing but it should do better than you think. Football aside, ABC is most likely not bringing Scandal back until mid season, my guess is they will put The Catch there which hasn’t gotten great ratings any way and even paired with Greys I don’t see that getting much better IF Bones runs into Chicago Med, I don’t know but I would take that over being next to Greys I am also going to take a guess that Bones series finale wont end up on a Thursday at all but maybe on a Sunday night, but that is probably wishful thinking on my part. I didn’t think Bones was going to come back in the fall so to think FOX would have put it anywhere else was never going to happen. I would have preferred Fridays but that isn’t happening. Obviously FOX is happy with Empire on Wed and Gotham on Mon and didn’t want to fix their Tues line up so there wasn’t much else they could do. I didn’t believe they would put Bones in front of Empire so like I said there wasn’t much else they could do.We are lucky we are getting Bones back at all so I am happy with their schedule.
I’d respectfully disagree. I don’t know if you’ve actually tried Rosewood, or not, but in my opinion it’s actually quite good – and for the record, I’m extremely picky about shows I watch. Topic-wise it also makes a perfect lead in for Bones since both shows deal with an independent forensics team working with law enforcement.
If you tried Rosewood but only watched one or two episodes, give it another shot – unless there’s an actor in it you simply can’t stand (which is a legitimate reason for not watching a show, of course) it’s worth it. And if you haven’t actually tried it, you should at least give it a shot.
Sleepy Hollow’s ratings are going to be even more terrible terrible without Nicole Beharie. LOL. Tom Mison used to sing her praises all the day long. Critical and commerical audiences recognized the redeeming quality of the poor writing was the partnership between Ichabod and Abbie. Couple her absence with the fact that FOX doesn’t promote. What a dumpster fire lol
There aren’t any Preveiws?
Gotham got 22 eps. 24 Legacy takes’s it’s spot until spring. 24 got 12 eps (1 after the Superbowl and one the next day so that leaves 10 weeks. That wouldn’t bring Gotham back until the last Monday of April. So will Gotham air all but 5 eps between Sept. & the end of Jan.?