Fox Unveils Fall 2020 Programming Plans

Home , Bless the Harts, Call Me Kat, HouseBroken, MasterChef Junior, The Great North

05.11.2020

In a non-pandemic world, Monday would have marked the start of broadcast's annual upfront week in New York City. But circumstances being what they are, networks are releasing information virtually.

On Monday, NBCUniversal hosted an hour-long online presentation with advertisers and the press to mostly talk about its One Platform offering. Fox went a step further, releasing its fall and midseason 2020 programming plans, even though production changes will likely affect this line-up.

"The effects of this global health crisis leave no business unaffected. As a media company that prides itself on an entrepreneurial spirit and the focus that comes with doing fewer things better, we mobilized, swiftly creating an entirely new, original-programming lineup for the fall to share with our partners this upfront," said Charlie Collier, CEO, Fox Entertainment, in a statement.

Fox really only has three nights a week of live-action entertainment programming, with the other four nights filled mostly by sports with one-Sunday-partial night of animation.

With the NFL planning to play its season as planned come fall, Thursday nights remain reserved for football. Fridays nights are for WWE's Friday Night Smackdown and Saturdays for Fox Sports Saturday. Sunday nights continue to be programmed with a line-up of NFL on Fox followed by four animated comedies: The Simpsons, Bless the Harts, Bob's Burgers and Family Guy.

Out of that lineup, only two new series are planned: psychological drama Next, starring Mad Men's John Slattery and Filthy Rich starring Sex and the City's Kim Cattrall. Both of those series were already in the can after being held over from this year. Sony Pictures Television-produced L.A.'s Finest, starring Jessica Alba and Gabrielle Union, will come over to Fox from cable operator Spectrum, while Cosmos: Possible Worlds, hosted by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, will air on Fox after previously airing on Nat Geo before that network was sold to Disney.

TV's top-rated series, The Masked Singer, will return for season four on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT, followed by Masterchef Junior at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Midseason will see Ryan Murphy-produced original dramas 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star return, as well as Mayim Bialik's new comedy, Call Me Kat, which is executive produced by Bialik and her Big Bang Theory castmate Jim Parsons. Two new animated comedies-The Great North and Housebroken-will premiere along with new seasons of Amy Poehler's Duncanville. On the reality side, Fox stays in business with Gordon Ramsay with the return of Hell's Kitchen.

Fox has yet to make decisions on most of its return live-action series and all of its pilots since the return to production still remains unclear.