Midseason 2014: ABC and Fox

Lots of interesting stuff in the ABC/Fox midseason schedule announcements this week. Here are a few thoughts on some of the big moves:

ABC

Mixology to Wednesday 9:30. - Like all the other hangout comedies to get this timeslot, it will probably not work. Unfortunately, I kind of saw this coming when ABC handed only a small episode extension to Super Fun Night. There's really no good place to put Mixology, but the only other idea that seemed even remotely sensible was a SFN/Mixology block sent somewhere separate in the spring (maybe even the Wednesday 10/9c hour). But with less than a full season, SFN wasn't going to have enough eps to make that happen. I'm not exactly clear on Mixology's episode order, but regardless, a late February premiere means I wouldn't yet give up on it getting cleared out by the very end of the season so something else could get a whirl there.

Suburgatory to Wednesday 8:30. - I noted on the Power Rankings a couple weeks ago to keep in mind that a big thing working against Back in the Game was its relative ease of replaceability. This seems to be Suburgatory's "best" timeslot, and it gets it back. While Suburgatory eroded enough last season that it won't be a major improvement on BitG, it'll likely be a minor one. If anything, the bigger surprise in this little cluster of shows is that BitG didn't even get a shot to see if it could do better than the badly struggling The Neighbors on Friday.

Revenge to 10/9c, Resurrection launches at 9/8c. - If cable didn't exist, this would be a nice show of faith to a new show that could be an OK fit with Once Upon a Time. Since cable does exist, this show is instead gonna be dealing with (assuming the scheduling mirrors last year) the tail end of The Walking Dead's season and the beginning of Game of Thrones' season. In other words, it may not be a much (or any?) better slot for Resurrection.

Killer Women and Mind Games to Tuesday 10/9c. - I floated earlier this week that ABC putting midseason dramas in this seemingly very perilous slot might mean ABC is planning to introduce something a little... sturdier at 9:00, like a return to the Dancing with the Stars results show. Though The Goldbergs and Trophy Wife have full seasons, ABC could run through them quickly and/or try them out somewhere else late in the spring, as NBC did with Go On and The New Normal last year. I'm not sold that it's necessarily a great idea... but lighting two dramas on fire with a Trophy Wife lead-in seems odd, even for ABC. Even if Mixology completely bombs, one would think something like the Wednesday 10/9c slot would provide more support than Trophy Wife. But ABC has instead pledged to go wire-to-wire there with Nashville.

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Fox

Glee to Tuesday 8/7c. - For the contingent out there who thinks Glee would do much better here than on Thursday... wish finally granted, though perhaps a year too late. Maybe Grey's Anatomy is just completely killing it, but I wouldn't expect much improvement... either on its Thursday numbers or on the Dads/Brooklyn Nine-Nine numbers in the slot. My guess is that the motivation here is not that much about "fixing" Tuesday (that would've been a more reasonable motivation a year ago) but about finding a way to keep Glee from having a massive hiatus when Rake takes over on Thursday. Given the two-year renewal, the network is probably pretty invested in scraping out a somewhat respectable level for this show next season.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine gets a 9:30 shot, Mindy hiatus, Dads gone. - The Glee move means Fox will kill its two-hour Tuesday lineup at midseason for a second straight year. Last year, they axed Ben and Kate and did a bunch of Raising Hope double pumps to use up all those full season orders. This time, two of the shows will share the 9:30 half-hour, as Brooklyn Nine-Nine gets the "cushy" slot (0.4 points higher than its current lead-in!) in the winter, forming the same pairing with New Girl that will air after the Super Bowl. Mindy reclaims it in April. And it looks at least for now like Dads may be getting Ben and Kated; it has no scheduled eps after February 11. However, I still think Dads might get a Sunday tryout; it would make some sense to learn a bit more about the show given Family Guy's usual lead-out American Dad! is ending its Fox run after this season anyway.

The Following Goes Post-NFC Championship. - Fox previously pegged newbie Rake as the "mini-Super Bowl" lead-out but will now go with somewhat more proven commodity The Following. Now Rake will have to hope for the best from its regular American Idol lead-in.

No Monday/Friday changes for now. - Ideally, Fox could've waited on all this for a couple more weeks to see what happens with Almost Human on Monday and whether the Friday lineup can come back a bit from its disappointing start. Instead, they announced nothing on those nights. Two issues stand out here. 1) Did Almost Human start early enough that it can get an extension beyond the initial order? If not, or if Human tanks terribly in the coming weeks, that slot's gonna open up... likely for a Bones return. And 2) I thought one thing that might come out of the Friday numbers was that Fox might try to do a little better by Enlisted, which is currently slated to premiere out of a show that got a 0.8/0.7 last week. Not only did they not announce a change on that front, but the closing of the second Tuesday comedy hour severely limits the possibilities. With the current setup, Fox is essentially throwing away both Enlisted and the already effectively cancelled Us & Them.