2014 Upfront Answers, Fox

Last week, I asked "Upfront Questions" to preview each network's fall 2014 schedule. With the schedule now official, here are the "Upfront Answers"!

Fox's upfront previews: True Power Rankings | Upfront Questions

Other Upfront Answers: NBC | Fox | ABC | CBS | CW

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MONDAY

Fall 2014 Schedule
8:00-9:00 PM GOTHAM (new)
9:00-10:00 PM Sleepy Hollow

My Question: Which new drama makes it onto Fox's best night for drama counter-programming?

Yep, it's Gotham. This seemed like the best play, and it should have potential to self-start on this night.

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TUESDAY

Fall 2014 Schedule
8:00-9:00 PM UTOPIA (new)
9:00-9:30 PM New Girl
9:30-10:00 PM The Mindy Project

My Question: Does Fox think new shows can succeed alongside the crumbling Tuesday comedies?

Yes, but not new comedies. Fox refuses to completely surrender in 18-49 ratings on Tuesday, going with their big gamble Utopia. But my thing with these big swings is that I always like to see some obvious benefit if the gamble works. Even if Utopia is a legitimate success, will it help the extreme young female-skewing New Girl and Mindy that much? This scheduling would tend to suggest Fox is not banking on it being a legitimate success, because I doubt Fox would funnel its audience into New Girl if they thought it'd be huge.

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WEDNESDAY

Fall 2014 Schedule
8:00-9:00 PM Hell's Kitchen
9:00-10:00 PM RED BAND SOCIETY (new)

My Question: How many of the three hours vacated by The X Factor go right back to unscripted programming?

In the end, there are three new unscripted hours to replace the three vacated by X. Utopia gets two of 'em, and Fox brings a second Ramsay show to Wednesday to lead into Octavia Spencer's medical drama Red Band Society.

However, Fox was still able to "open up" a couple more hours for their extensive new drama slate by 1) shipping its second live-action comedy hour to Sunday, 2) no regularly-scheduled encore hour and, most surprisingly, 3) holding Glee for midseason. Can't say keeping that thing off the sked for as long as possible is a bad move, but I didn't think it was possible with the reported full-season order. Coupled with newbie Empire, both of the network's music-themed dramas will be saved for American Idol season.

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THURSDAY

Fall 2014 Schedule
8:00-9:00 PM Bones
9:00-10:00 PM GRACEPOINT (new)

My Question: Is Thursday another opportunity for scripted counter-programming?

Yep, and in the Bones / new drama form that I predicted. However, it's Gracepoint (a remake of the British series Broadchurch) rather than Backstrom getting the fall nod. With CBS going so extreme in its drama pick-ups, the Thursday 9/8c suddenly looks like much more of a wild card for new dramas than it did before. But before The Blacklist's arrival in February, it shouldn't be too much of a murderer's row.

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FRIDAY

Fall 2014 Schedule
8:00-9:00 PM MasterChef Junior
9:00-10:00 PM UTOPIA (new)

My Question: How much effort can a badly struggling network put forth on Friday?

MasterChef Junior is back here, as seemed most likely, and it should do respectably. The second hour of Utopia is on Friday at 9/8c, where (once again) it won't be that damaging if it bombs and it won't be that helpful to the network's overall ratings if it works.

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SUNDAY

Fall 2014 Schedule
7:00-7:30 PM NFL Game
7:30-8:00 PM Bob's Burgers / THE OT
8:00-8:30 PM The Simpsons
8:30-9:00 PM Brooklyn Nine-Nine
9:00-9:30 PM Family Guy
9:30-10:00 PM MULANEY (new)

My Question: How much of Fox's animation development gets picked up?

Only Bordertown, already ordered for 13 episodes and slated for midseason. With the animation development pipeline seemingly drying up, Fox will close up the two-hour Animation Domination and try its male-leaning live action shows on the night, including the sophomore Brooklyn Nine-Nine after The Simpsons. It kinda reminds me of the post-Simpsons berth that Arrested Development garnered in season two. In that case, the move was of minor help, but not enough to really justify it, and that (sadly) seems like the likeliest outcome for Brooklyn as well. It'll be interesting to see how much animated stuff Fox develops for 2015-16, but this arrangement definitely suggests they might be on their way out of that business.

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GENERAL IMPRESSIONS

I expected to come here on Monday morning and say, "Well, all you can really say about this schedule is that it will depend heavily on Utopia. If it works, they could make progress. If not, disaster." But instead, Fox seems to have gone out of its way to make that dependence as small as humanly possible; they somehow found room for three new dramas without two nights of Utopia leading into a single one of them. The new dramas on Wednesday and Thursday will have dependable but frankly bland-rated lead-ins, and they may have to fully retain/grow to be considered significant successes. To me, that suggests a relatively significant vote of no-confidence in Utopia, but your mileage may vary. Fox is surely well aware that they're limiting the upside with this sked, but that probably means they're counting on Utopia being more on the downside half of the equation.