2020 Fall Schedule: FOX

With the virus putting everything on hold for the immediate future, Fox released a schedule today (the first network to do so) that is comprised almost entirely of content that has already been produced or that Fox, itself, is not producing. This schedule includes two new dramas that were supposed to air in the 2019-2020 season, some acquisitions, and a holdover season of a fan-favorite reality franchise.

Monday

8:00 - L.A.'s Finest (Network Premiere)
9:00 - neXt (NEW)

L.A.'s Finest had a very strange and circuitous route to television. It initially received a put pilot commitment from NBC in 2017 for consideration in the 2018-2019 season. NBC passed on the project, a female-led spin-off of the Bad Boys film franchise. It was shopped around and ended up becoming the first Spectrum Original, available only to Spectrum customers. There was other crazy stuff that happened in the production phase, including a stuntman having his leg amputated following an on-set accident, but the show ultimately premiered in May of 2019 and was renewed for a second season, premiering on Spectrum next month. Now Fox has acquired that first season to air in the fall, which isn't a terrible idea. The Bad Boys franchise is reinvigorated after the huge box office of Bad Boys for Life in January, so perhaps this will be a success despite absolutely dreadful reviews (it's at 7% on Rotten Tomatoes)

The Gabrielle Union/Jessica Alba vehicle will be paired with neXt, an AI drama that had just completed production in Mach when the virus brought everything to a halt (the show was also the first major production to have a confirmed case of the virus among its production staff).

Tuesday

8:00 - Cosmos: Possible Worlds (Network Premiere)
9:00 - Filthy Rich (NEW)

Another acquisition that has had a crazy journey to the airwaves, the sequel series to Fox's 2014 reboot of/follow-up to Cosmos, Possible Worlds was originally planned to air in March 2019 on Fox before being pulled following allegations of sexual harassment against host Neil deGrasse Tyson. The show was shelved for over a year and finally aired on National Geographic last month. It's now getting a slot on its intended network in the fall, paired (bizarrely) with the Kim Cattrall-led soap Filthy Rich.

Wednesday

8:00 - The Masked Singer
9:00 - I Can See Your Voice (NEW)

It's unknown if it will be safe for production on TV to resume in time for fall premieres, but if it is, The Masked Singer plans to enter production in August for a fall debut (with new parameters, like not having a studio audience). It'll be paired with the new season of Masterchef Junior, which was supposed to air over the summer but will be held.

ETA: Masterchef Junior will be held once again to make way for the new Ken Jeong series I Can See Your Voice.

Thursday

NFL

The NFL has announced a full-season schedule, but it's anyone's guess if it actually happens.

Friday

8:00 - WWE Smackdown

Fox paid a pretty penny to get the rights to Smackdown, and it'll be interesting to see if and/or how it returns in the fall.

Sunday

8:00 - The Simpsons
8:30 - Bless the Harts
9:00 - Bob's Burgers
9:30 - Family Guy

Animation has not been affected by the shutdown, with many of Fox's shows having already produced episodes for the 2020-21 production cycle and others able to continue work in isolation. The entire fall 2019 lineup returns, including newbie Bless the Harts.

Midseason

It'll hopefully be a busy midseason for Fox once things can get back into production. That includes the return of dramas 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star and at least one new comedy: Call Me Kat, a sitcom produced by Jim Parsons and starring Mayim Bialik and the internet's favorite pandemic social media star, Leslie Jordan. We'll also see the premiere of two new animated comedies: The Great North, which was held over from 2019-20; and Housebroken, which was ordered back in December. A second season of Duncanville and a new season of Hell's Kitchen are slated for summer 2021.

No commitments were made to renewing or cancelling the remaining to-be-determined shows Last Man Standing, Outmatched, Prodigal Son, and The Resident.

Click after the jump for descriptions of new series.

Call Me Kat - Kat (Mayim Bialik, The Big Bang Theory) is a 39-year-old woman who struggles every day against society and her mother to prove that you can NOT have everything you want - and still be happy. Which is why she spent her life savings to open a Cat Café in Louisville, Kentucky.

Filthy Rich - Filthy Rich is a southern Gothic family soap in which wealth, power and religion collide – with outrageously soapy results. When the patriarch (Emmy Award winner Gerald McRaney, This Is Us, 24: Legacy) of a mega-rich Southern family, famed for creating a wildly successful Christian television network, dies in a plane crash, his wife (five-time Emmy Award nominee and Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe winner Kim Cattrall, Sex and the City) and family are stunned to learn that he fathered three illegitimate children, all of whom are written into his will, threatening their family name and fortune. With monumental twists and turns, Filthy Rich presents a world in which everyone has an ulterior motive – and no one is going down without a fight. From writer/director Tate Taylor (Ma, The Help, The Girl on the Train), the series also stars Melia Kreiling (Tyrant), Aubrey Dollar (Battle Creek), Corey Cott (The Good Fight), Benjamin Levy Aguilar (Straight Outta Compton), Mark L. Young (We’re The Millers) and Olivia Macklin (LA to Vegas), with Emmy Award nominee Steve Harris (The Practice) and Aaron Lazar (Quantico, The Strain). Kim Cattrall also serves as a producer on the series.

The Great North - From executive producer Loren Bouchard (Bob's Burgers), animated comedy The Great North follows the Alaskan adventures of the Tobin family, as a single dad does his best to keep his weird bunch of kids close, especially as the artistic dreams of his only daughter lead her away from the family fishing boat and into the glamorous world of the local mall.

Housebroken - A irreverent comedy that explores human dysfunction and neurosis through a group of neighborhood animals who live in the suburbs.

I Can See Your Voice - I Can See Your Voice features Emmy-nominated actress Cheryl Hines and Daytime Emmy Award-winning television host and vocalist Adrienne Bailon-Houghton, as they join Ken Jeong, a rotating panel of celebrity detectives, comprised of comedians and pop culture experts, and a musical superstar to help one contestant tell the difference between good and bad singers, without ever hearing them sing a note. With $100,000 on the line, the contestant will attempt to weed out the bad "Secret Voices" from the good, based on a series of clues, interrogation, and lip synch challenges. In the end, the singer whom the contestant picks will reveal if they are good or bad in a duet performance with the musical superstar, resulting in an amazing musical collaboration or a totally hilarious train wreck.

L.A.'s Finest - From the universe of the Jerry Bruckheimer Bad Boys franchise, the one-hour series L.A.'s Finest follows Syd Burnett (Gabrielle Union), last seen in Miami taking down a drug cartel, who has seemingly left her complicated past behind to become an LAPD detective. Paired with a new partner, Nancy McKenna (Jessica Alba), a working mom with an equally complex history, Syd is forced to confront how her unapologetic lifestyle may be masking a greater personal secret. Taking on the most dangerous criminals in Los Angeles while skirting the rules, and speed limits, Syd and Nancy become a force to be reckoned with – on the streets, and in each other’s lives.

neXt -  From creator and executive producer Manny Coto (24: Legacy), executive producer Charlie Gogolak (This Is Us) and executive producers and directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra (This Is Us), neXt is a propulsive, fact-based thriller about the emergence of a deadly, rogue artificial intelligence that combines pulse-pounding action with a layered examination of how technology is invading our lives. The event series stars Emmy Award nominee John Slattery (Mad Men) as a Silicon Valley pioneer, who discovers that one of his own creations – a powerful A.I. – might spell global catastrophe. He teams up with a cybercrime agent (Fernanda Andrade, The First) to fight a villain unlike anything we’ve ever seen – one whose greatest weapon against us is ourselves. The series also stars Michael Mosley (Ozark), Jason Butler Harner (Ozark), Eve Harlow (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Aaron Moten (Mozart in the Jungle), Gerardo Celasco (How to Get Away with Murder), Elizabeth Cappuccino (Jessica Jones) and Evan Whitten (The Resident).