Fox makes the last midseason moves
12/02/11 08:59 AM
By ED BARK
Fox became the last major broadcast network to announced its midseason revamp Thursday, with three new dramas and a comedy coming while American Idol kicks off its 11th season on a different night then previously announced.
A special edition of Idol will still air following the Jan. 22nd NFC championship game. But the season premiere of Idol is now set for Wednesday, Jan. 18th, with another episode on Thursday of that week.
Kiefer Sutherland, a Fox stalwart for eight seasons as Jack Bauer on 24, will get an Idol-fueled jump start on Wednesday, Jan. 25th, when his new series Touch snuggles in behind prime-time's reigning most popular series.
Sutherland plays a widower/single dad who's vexed by an inability to bond with his 11-year-old mute son. But "everything changes," says Fox, "when he discovers that his son possesses the gift of staggering genius -- the ability to see things that no one else can and the patterns that connect seemingly unrelated events."
Created by Tim Kring (Heroes), Touch will move to Mondays at 8 p.m. (central) after its post-Idol preview. But you'll have to wait until March 19th, when it has its official series premiere.
Mondays otherwise will house the new Alcatraz, a JJ Abrams (Lost, Fringe) creation that has a two-hour premiere on Jan. 16th at 7 p.m. before moving behind House on the following Monday. Strange things happen, then and now, at the storied San Francisco lockup, with Lost alum Jorge Garcia co-starring with Sam Neill and Sarah Jones.
The third new drama series, a Bones spinoff titled The Finder, premieres on Thursday, Jan. 12th at 8 p.m. It will be preceded by the Bones episode that introduced its characters. Geoff Stultz and Michael Clarke Duncan star in the crime procedural, which focuses on "a remarkable man with an extraordinary ability to help people find the unfindable."
Fox also will add a cartoon version of Napoleon Dynamite to its Sunday night "Animation Domination" lineup, beginning on Jan. 15th with two episodes. Dynamite, featuring the voices of the original feature film cast, then will move to its regular Sunday 7:30 p.m. slot on Jan. 29th.
Finally, the comedy series Breaking In, which had a short run last spring, has been uncanceled and will get a second try on Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m., beginning March 6th.
I Hate My Teenager Daughter, which premiered on Wednesday of this week, will be pulled at the end of December but supposedly is returning sometime in the spring. The Howie Mandel-hosted Mobbed will serve as putty on Wednesdays, with episodes scheduled on Jan. 4th and 11th and Feb. 1st and 8th.