You can see the full primetime schedule, new and returning midseason series and cancellations below. Bold Italic denotes new show.
Update 5.18.2008: See what the rest of the networks are doing for Fall 2008.
Updated 6.6.2008: FOX announced on June 5th that they are changing their premiere schedule and the information below now reflects the new premiere dates.
FOX Fall 2008 Primetime TV Schedule
Sunday
The OT (NFL post-game)
The Simpsons – Season Premiere September 28th.
King of the Hill – Season Premiere September 28th.
Family Guy – Season Premiere September 28th.
American Dad – Season Premiere September 28th.
Monday
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – Season Premiere September 8th. Very glad to FOX decided to keep this one around for another season.
Prison Break – Two-hour season premiere on August 25th September 1st.
Tuesday
House – Season Premiere September 16th.
Fringe – Two-hour series premiere on August 26th September 9th. From the press release: “From J.J. Abrams (Lost), Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the team behind Star Trek, Mission: Impossible III and Alias, comes a new drama that will thrill, terrify and explore the blurring line between science fiction and reality. When an international flight lands at Boston’s Logan Airport and the passengers and crew have all died grisly deaths, FBI Special Agent OLIVIA DUNHAM (newcomer Anna Torv) is called in to investigate. After her partner, Special Agent JOHN SCOTT (Mark Valley, Boston Legal), is nearly killed during the investigation, a desperate Olivia searches frantically for someone to help, leading her to DR. WALTER BISHOP (John Noble, Lord of the Rings), our generation’s Einstein. There’s only one catch: he’s been institutionalized for the last 20 years, and the only way to question him requires pulling his estranged son PETER (Joshua Jackson, Dawson’s Creek) in to help. When Olivia’s investigation leads her to manipulative corporate executive NINA SHARP (Blair Brown, Altered States), our unlikely trio along with fellow FBI Agents PHILLIP BROYLES (Lance Reddick, The Wire), CHARLIE FRANCIS (Kirk Acevedo, Oz) and ASTRID FARNSWORTH (Jasika Nicole, Law & Order: Criminal Intent) will discover that what happened on Flight 627 is only a small piece of a larger, more shocking truth.”
Wednesday
Bones – Two-hour season premiere on August 27th September 3rd.
Til Death – Still can’t believe this was brought back and Back to You was cancelled. Season Premiere September 10th.
Do Not Disturb – Series Premiere September 10th. This is the working title. From the press release: “A hilarious workplace comedy set at one of New York City’s hottest and hippest hotels: The Inn. Named one of the Big Apple’s ’10 Best Places to Stay,’ The Inn is just that – the ‘in’ place to be, with its chic decor, stylish staff and celebrity clientele. Behind the scenes, however, the upstairs/downstairs dynamic tells quite a different story. The hotel’s top-notch reputation and sophisticated look is due in large part to NEAL (Jerry O’Connell, Crossing Jordan) – at least in his opinion. Although The Inn’s charismatic owner R.J. (guest star Robert Wagner) takes all the credit, Neal is the egotistical, hyper-stylish, detail-oriented general manager who will do whatever it takes to keep the hotel and its employees up to his standards. RHONDA (Niecy Nash, Reno 911!) is the head of Human Resources who also keeps Neal’s demands in check. She’s brash, fabulous and brutally honest and runs the HR department from her bullpen downstairs with a set of rules that are all her own. Rhonda does her best to keep the back of the house in line and the front of the house out of trouble. At the front desk handling check-in while wearing 6-inch Manolos is NICOLE (Molly Stanton, Twins), an aging model who is svelte, cynical and slightly starving. Fresh from Nebraska is JASON (Brando Eaton, Zoey 101), the naive bellman who would prefer to work behind-the-scenes, but was hired to show off his chiseled face and perfect pecs at the front of the hotel. The downstairs staff includes MOLLY (Jolene Purdy, Donnie Darko), a reservations clerk who dreams of pop-singer stardom as much as she craves to be part of the action upstairs; and LARRY (Jesse Tyler Ferguson, The Class), the head of housekeeping who spends more time on the phone cleaning up his messes at home than he does cleaning up after the guests upstairs.”
Thursday
The Moment of Truth – Two-hour season premiere on September 4th.
Kitchen Nightmares – Season Premiere September 11th.
Friday
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? – Two-hour season premiere on August 29th September 5th.
Don’t Forget the Lyrics! – Season Premiere September 12th.
Saturday
Cops – Season Premiere September 6th.
Cops (Rerun)
America’s Most Wanted: America Fights Back – Season Premiere September 6th.
FOX Shows – Retuning at Midseason
Coming back, but not until later, are: 24, American Idol and Hell’s Kitchen. Although, there will be a two-hour 24 TV movie, which is presently scheduled for November 23rd.
FOX Shows – New for Midseason
Debuting in January 2009 are: The Cleveland Show, Dollhouse, Secret Millionaire and Sit Down, Shut Up.
FOX Shows – Cancelled/Not Returning
They have said goodbye to: Back to You, Canterbury’s Law, K-Ville, Nashville, The Next Great American Band, New Amsterdam, The Return of Jezebel James and Unhitched. You can find the unaired Jezebel James episodes at iTunes and Amazon Unbox.
TVaholic’s Take on the FOX Fall 2008 TV Schedule
Was disappointed in the cancellation of Back to You and New Amsterdam and wish that The Return of Jezebel James would have gotten a decent shot, but was glad to see Sarah Connor make her return.
As for the new FOX schedule, it looks like it will be a FOX free Thursday and Friday, well and Saturday too, but at least they actually program Saturday nights with original content. There are five returning shows that I will continue to watch and both the new shows will get a shot, especially Fringe.
Surprised that they are moving House to the first hour of primetime, but they are going to try and help Fringe, which will follow it.
Also, it is interesting that FOX will be offering new programming early, not that they haven’t done that before, but this year it will be during the Democratic National Convention. Although, they have nothing scheduled for August 28th, the night the nominee will make their acceptance speech. FOX has thought better of this strategy and moved their big premieres back a week, but that just means they are now the same week as the Republican National Convention.
Overall, even with two nights of game show and reality show crap, their Fall Schedule looks a lot more solid this time around than it did last fall.
How about you? What do you like about FOX’s Fall 2008 Schedule? What don’t you like? What shows do you wish they hadn’t cancelled? Let us know in the comments.
I am in total agreement concerning New Amsterdam. I thought that they(producers/writers) could go just about anywhere with the main character, I mean, dudes immortal! Also, the writing wasn’t half-bad.
Matt, New Amsterdam had lots of possibilities. I really liked how they weaved his considerable past together with what he was doing in the present.
I was very disappointed that Back To You was canceled while Til Death was renewed. Fox cares more about money than they do about talent. Til Death is not funny! I watrched it once, and I was not impressed. Back To You had a great cast, grat plotlines, and was funny. The only reason I’m watching FOX this season is for Bones, although I’m worried for the future because to the move to Fridays at midseason when AI comes on.
Kim, there are a lot more reasons to watch FOX than just Bones, but I’m with you on the cancellation of Back to You. It was a better show than ‘Til Death. Really surprised that they didn’t cancel both of them. And, yes FOX cares about making money, as that’s the reason they create these shows in the first place.
Re: New Amsterdam
Why do the networks always cancel the best new shows? New Amsterdam was a wonderful show, with a great storyline. Just because a lot of people don’t pick up on it right away is no reason to dump a show. They should at least bring it back as a mid-season replacement because most of the stuff they will come up with for the fall will probably fall flat.
Ray, that’s a good question. I wish I knew why some really good shows get cancelled, while other not so good shows remain on the air. Mainly, it boils down to cost to produce an episode vs. what they are getting in return, but I agree that networks should give some shows more time to grow an audience. At least FOX ran all eight episodes they had of New Amsterdam before they made their decision. I really enjoyed the show, as well, but it won’t be coming back no matter how FOX’s new slate of shows perform.
New Amsterdam reminds me, in a way, of Firefly…and look what happened to that. Wonder if Fox-Execs are still kicking themselves over that.
Dian, I see your point, but New Amsterdam was no Firefly, as it didn’t quite develop the same type of core audience. I don’t know if the FOX execs are still kicking themselves, but I know a few people that would do it for them, if given the chance.
I cannot believe that Fox cancelled New Amsterdam? This was the best show ever! I don’t know what kind of people make these decisions. In total 5 of my favorite shows on all channels have been cancelled I think I am just gonna throw out my television.
We can’t believe “Back to You” is cancelled, it was very funny, & a great cast. You don’t have very good taste. I wonder about your choice.”Till Death” isn’t that funny. I am glad you have given “Bones” another season. “House” isn’t any good now that they don’t have the regular cast, it really has gotten stupid. Talk about keeping the dumb series.
Yvonne
New Amsterdam and Back to You should definitely not have gotten the axe. All I can say is Fox has created room on my DVR because the good shows are gone (except for Bones, of course).