Fox TV Schedule: 2014 Fall Lineup Struggling To Make Hits Out Of 'Red Band Society' & 'Mulaney' Despite 'Gotham' Success [VIDEO]
Despite a few lackluster debuts, Fox is expected to soldier on with its fall 2014 TV schedule while moving a few things around.
Gotham Casts Masters of Sex Star As Harvey Dent
Fox's Monday night lineup is a relative success with Batman prequel series Gotham leading the night at 8 p.m. In live viewership, the series has gone down in total viewers each week, going from over 8 million viewers for the series premiere to just over 6 million for Monday night's episode. The series is still performing well in the coveted adults 18-49 demographic though, so it's probably not going anywhere.
Sleepy Hollow, which was a breakout hit last season, has decreased significantly in Season 2. In the Mondays at 9 p.m. timeslot it has been receiving between 4-6 million viewers a week, down from its 6-8 million for Season 1. However, it could still be considered a hit for the network, compared to some of their other shows.
Glee's Santana Might Be 'Popping A Very Important Question' In Final Season
Tuesdays and Wednesdays have not been going well for Fox. Their Utopia experiment has been a bit of a bust. Originally airing Tuesdays and Fridays, Fox has since limited the reality series to just Fridays. On both nights the series is struggling to hit 2 million viewers.
Sitcoms New Girl and The Mindy Project are continuing their downward trajectory, despite critical acclaim for both. The series have settled in the 2-3 million range. They were around this area last year, however, and Fox renewed each of them anyway.
Fox has since scheduled various animated programming in place of Utopia on Tuesdays. The Simpsons/Family Guy crossover will air Tuesday night while animated repeats will air next Tuesday. MasterChef Junior will then kick off on Nov. 4.
Hell's Kitchen continues to have moderate success on Wednesdays at 8 p.m., though new hospital drama Red Band Society is struggling. It began with just 4.1 million viewers and has since dropped to 3.33 million.
Bones, one of Fox's most reliable hits, is doing pretty good in its new Thursdays at 8 p.m. timeslot, averaging around 6 million viewers for its first two episodes of Season 10. Meanwhile Gracepoint, the 10 part mystery event, got off to a somewhat sleepy start, getting 4.8 million viewers for its premiere. However, considering its a miniseries, it is highly unlikely that it will be cancelled.
Despite a highly watched night of Sunday premieres, The Simpsons, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Family Guy each dropped in their second weeks. Even worse, the new sitcom Mulaney debuted to just 2.3 million viewers at 9:30 p.m.
Though Fox is struggling, it may recoup some of its audience when American Idol premieres in the spring in addition to the buzzed-about final season of Glee.