FOX announces next season's schedule

     Right in the middle of season finale madnesses, the networks are releasing their fall schedules, handing down decisions on what goes and stays. FOX is the second network to do so, and next season will be a mix of returning favorites and risky new ventures.

     Monday nights will see Dr. House move to 9pm following new series Terra Nova at 8pm. In Terra Nova, producers Steven Spielberg (Jurassic Park), Jon Cassar (24) and Brannon Braga (Star Trek: Enterprise) take us back in time to meet dinosaurs! Jason O'Mara (Life On Mars) plays a dad from the year 2149 whose family is lost in the past. Stephen Lang (Avatar) leads a settlement that has already been built there, and Christine Adams (The Whole Truth) leads a group of people jumping in time. Sounds action packed! But Terra Nova only runs through mid-season, when House reclaims the 8 o'clocl hour, and Alcatraz, a new mysterious drama from J.J. Abrams (Lost) starring Jorge Garcia (Lost), Parminder Nagra (ER), Robert Forster (Heroes), Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) and Sarah Jones (Sons of Anarchy) premieres. Apparently some prisoners and guards who have been lost for thirty years suddenly turn back up.

     Tuesday returns Glee at 8pm, while Raising Hope gets pushed to 9:30 so New Girl can slide in the middle of the successful sandwich. In New Girl, a poor elementary teacher played by Zooey Deschanel (500 Days of Summer) moves into an apartment inhabited by three men. Damon Wayans Jr. (Happy Endings) and Max Greenfield (Greek) are attached to star, though Wayans is signed to Happy Endings, which has been renewed, so he will likely be replaced.

      Wednesday night is all new with Simon Cowell's much anticipated reality competition series The X-Factor, followed up by I Hate My Teenage Daughter. Starring Jaime Pressly (My Name Is Earl), Katie Finneran (Wonderfalls), Chad Coleman (The Wire), and Kevin Rahm (Desperate Housewives), Pressly and Finneran will play mothers raising mean girl daughters, despite the fact that the pair hated mean girls growing up. Oops! X-Factor will only be on in the fall, to be replaced by American Idol, of course, in the spring.

     Thursday finds The X Factor results show at 8pm, followed by fan favorite Bones at 9pm. Come 2012, X Factor is replaced by Idol, and Bones will take a hiatus, to be replaced by its spinoff, The Finder, based  on the characters introduced in a Bones episode last month. Bones will return later in the year and finish out the spring.

     Friday has no shakeups, as Kitchen Nightmares and Fringe have both been renewed, and will retain their current timeslots.

     Sunday continues to begin at 7:30, with The Cleveland Show, The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad and Allen Gregory, which is an animated show starring Jonah Hill as a young boy leaving home to begin elementary school. Bob's Burgers is slated for mid-season, while American Dad! and Allen Gregory get benched, and an animated version of Napoleon Dynamite, featuring the movie cast, premieres. Knowing how FOX Sundays currently go, any one of their seven animated sitcoms could air on any given week, depending on whim, so keep an eye on listings.

     Given the lineup above, this does mean that Human Target, Lie To Me, Traffic Light, The Chicago Code, The Good Guys, Breaking In and Running Wilde are all officially canceled. The axe came down hard on FOX this year.

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