FOX sets primetime lineup for 2011-2012 season

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At FOX Broadcasting’s upfront presentation 5/16 at The New Beacon Theatre in NYC, Peter Rice, Chairman, Entertainment, Fox Networks Group; and Kevin Reilly, President, Entertainment, Fox Broadcasting Company, unveiled the primetime schedule for the 2011-2012 television season to the national advertising community.
 
Launching this fall is the much-anticipated The X Factor, marking the return of Simon Cowell. Cowell, along with Antonio “L.A.” Reid, Cheryl Cole and Paula Abdul, will judge the U.S. version of the international television show that will award an unprecedented $5 million recording contract with Syco/Sony Music to the next global superstar or breakout music group.
 
Epic family adventure series Terra Nova, executive-produced by Steven Spielberg (“Saving Private Ryan,” “Jurassic Park”), Peter Chernin, René Echevarria (“Castle,” “The 4400”) and Brannon Braga (“24”) and starring Jason O’Mara (“Life On Mars”) and Stephen Lang (“Avatar”), premieres in the fall. The series follows an ordinary family on an extraordinary journey back in time to prehistoric Earth as a small part of a daring experiment to save the human race. In the year 2149, the world is dying. The planet is overdeveloped and overcrowded, with the majority of plant and animal life extinct. The future of mankind is in jeopardy, and its only hope for survival is in the distant past. When scientists at the FERMI Particle Accelerator unexpectedly discovered a fracture in time that made it possible to construct a portal into primeval history, the bold notion was born to resettle humanity in the past – a second chance to rebuild civilization and get it right this time.
 
Also debuting this fall are the half-hour comedies “New Girl” (working title) and “I Hate My Teenage Daughter” (working title). Created by Liz Meriwether (“No Strings Attached”), New Girl is a new single-camera ensemble comedy starring Zooey Deschanel (“(500) Days of Summer”) as Jess, an offbeat girl who – after a bad breakup – moves in with three single guys and essentially sets a bomb off in their lives.


“I Hate My Teenage Daughter” is a new comedy about two best friends who are single moms struggling to raise their difficult and over-privileged teenage daughters. Annie (Emmy Award winner Jaime Pressly, “My Name Is Earl”) and Nikki (Tony Award winner Katie Finneran, “Wonderfalls”) are former high school outcasts whose pasts inform their current parenting styles. They have given the girls everything they asked for and everything they never had: clothes, money and self-esteem. The unintended consequence is they have created two mean girls just like the ones who tortured them years ago.
 
“Allen Gregory” is the new animated comedy joining the Sunday Animation Domination lineup this fall. Created by and featuring the voice of Jonah Hill (“Get Him to the Greek,” “Superbad”), it’s the story of an extremely pretentious 7-year-old about to embark on his greatest challenge yet: leaving the safety of homeschooling and attending elementary school with children his own age.
 
The two new dramas set to launch in midseason are “Alcatraz” and “The Finder.” From executive producer J.J. Abrams (“Lost,” “Star Trek”) and writer Elizabeth Sarnoff (“Lost”) and starring Sarah Jones (“Sons of Anarchy”), Jorge Garcia (“Lost”) and Sam Neill (“Jurassic Park”), Alcatraz is a new thriller centered on America’s most infamous prison and the mysterious return of its most notorious criminals. 

In “The Finder,” Iraq war vet Walter Sherman (Geoff Stults, “She’s Out of My League”) gained a reputation while serving in the Army Military Police as someone who was very good at tracking down insurgents, deserters and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Unfortunately, Walter found one IED just moments before it found him. Two months later, when Walter woke from his coma, he earned an honorable discharge and returned home. His resulting brain damage from the explosion transformed him from someone skilled at recovering people and things into something much more extraordinary: a Finder. The new one-hour procedural centers on the man who now uses his unique gift to help others recover what they’ve lost. Walter is often asked to find a person or a thing that law enforcement either will not or can’t find.

Based on the hit cult classic and featuring the voices of the film’s original cast, Napoleon Dynamite is the new animated comedy premiering in midseason. The series follows the continuing adventures of Napoleon Dynamite, America’s most awesomely awkward teenager, and his quirky family and friends as they navigate life in rural Idaho.

Kiefer Sutherland marks his return in “Touch,” a drama in development and slated for midseason. It’s from writer/creator Tim Kring (“Heroes,” “Crossing Jordan”) and executive producers Peter Chernin and Katherine Pope. The  preternatural drama has science and spirituality intersect with the hopeful premise that we are all interconnected, tied in invisible ways to those whose lives we are destined to alter and impact. Through storytelling, the series follows a group of seemingly unrelated characters – beginning with a former firefighter tormented by his inability to save a dying woman, an Iraqi teenager who will go to great risks to help his family, a gifted singer whose actions at a karaoke bar save lives thousands of miles away and a British businessman desperately trying to retrieve a key piece of information from his lost mobile phone – who affect each other in ways seen and unseen. At the center is Martin Bohm (Sutherland), a widower and single father, haunted by an inability to connect to his mute, severely autistic 10-year-old son, Jake. Caring, intelligent and thoughtful, Martin has tried everything to reach his son who shows little emotion and never allows himself to be touched by anyone, including Martin. Jake busies himself with cast-off cell phones, disassembling them and manipulating the parts, allowing him to see the world in his own special way. After multiple failed attempts at keeping Jake in school, Martin is visited by social worker Clea Hopkins, who insists on doing an evaluation of the Bohms’ living situation.

 
The 2011-2012 primetime schedule:
 
FOX FALL 2011 PRIMETIME SCHEDULE
(All Times ET/PT)
 
MONDAY
8:00-9:00 PM    TERRA NOVA (new)       
9:00-10:00 PM   HOUSE
 
TUESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM    GLEE
9:00-9:30 PM    NEW GIRL (wt) (new)
9:30-10:00 PM   RAISING HOPE

WEDNESDAY
8:00-9:30 PM    THE X FACTOR Performance Show (new)    
9:30-10:00 PM   I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER (wt) (new)          
 
THURSDAY
8:00-9:00 PM    THE X FACTOR Results Show (new)
9:00-10:00 PM   BONES          
 
FRIDAY
8:00-9:00 PM    KITCHEN NIGHTMARES
9:00-10:00 PM   FRINGE
 
SATURDAY
8:00-8:30 PM    COPS   
8:30-9:00 PM    COPS   
9:00-10:00 PM   ENCORES / AMERICA’S MOST WANTED (specials)
 
SUNDAY
7:00-7:30 PM    THE OT (NFL post-game)
7:30-8:00 PM    THE CLEVELAND SHOW
8:00-8:30 PM    THE SIMPSONS
8:30-9:00 PM    ALLEN GREGORY (new)
9:00-9:30 PM    FAMILY GUY
9:30-10:00 PM   AMERICAN DAD
 
 
FOX Midseason 2012 Primetime Schedule (All Times ET/PT)
 
MONDAY
8:00-9:00 PM    HOUSE  
9:00-10:00 PM   ALCATRAZ (new)          
 
TUESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM    GLEE
9:00-9:30 PM    NEW GIRL (wt) (new)
9:30-10:00 PM   RAISING HOPE
 
WEDNESDAY
8:00-9:30 PM    AMERICAN IDOL Performance Show
9:30-10:00 PM   I HATE MY TEENAGE DAUGHTER (wt) (new)
 
THURSDAY
8:00-9:00 PM    AMERICAN IDOL Results Show
9:00-10:00 PM   THE FINDER (new) / BONES (spring)
 
FRIDAY
8:00-9:00 PM    KITCHEN NIGHTMARES
9:00-10:00 PM   FRINGE         
 
SATURDAY
8:00-8:30 PM    COPS   
8:30-9:00 PM    COPS   
9:00-10:00 PM   ENCORES / AMERICA’S MOST WANTED (specials)
 
SUNDAY
7:00-7:30 PM    ANIMATION DOMINATION (encores)
7:30-8:00 PM    THE CLEVELAND SHOW
8:00-8:30 PM    THE SIMPSONS   
8:30-9:00 PM    NAPOLEON DYNAMITE (new)
9:00-9:30 PM    FAMILY GUY     
9:30-10:00 PM   BOB’S BURGERS