The 2007 Network Upfronts: Fox

Well, this year Fox has done it again, they’ve put out multiple schedules for the coming season, one pre-Idol, one for January, and for the spring. And, as usual, it’s a little difficult to figure out exactly what’s going on where and when, and virtually guaranteed that just because they say something is going to happen in January or in the spring there is no certainty of it actually occurring (save that American Idol and 24 will be back).

I’ve included two schedules here. They are the fall schedule and the spring one (in that order), I have not included the January one, but will discuss the differences below (new programs in bold):

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
7:00	The OT
7:30
8:00	The Simpsons	Prison Break	New Amsterdam	Back to You	Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?	The Search for the Next Great American Band	Cops
8:30	King of the Hill			'Til Death			Cops
9:00	Family Guy	K-Ville	House	Bones	Kitchen Nightmares	Nashville	America’s Most Wanted
9:30	American Dad

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
7:00	King of the Hill
7:30	American Dad
8:00	The Simpsons	Prison Break	American Idol	Back to You	Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?	Bones	Cops
8:30	Family Guy			The Return of Jezebel James			Cops
9:00	The Sarah Connor Chronicles	24	House	American Idol Results	Canterbury's Law	New Amsterdam	America's Most Wanted
9:30				'Til Death

Confused yet? Well, let’s add this to the mix. The January differences from the spring schedule are as follows: It’s K-Ville in the Prison Break slot, ‘Til Death in the Jezebel James one, Idol will run for an hour on Wednesdays at 9:00, not 30 minutes, and Friday and Sunday will still be the fall schedules.

There, now that that’s all sorted out, on to the new stuff…

K-Ville. A cop show in New Orleans (“K” being Katrina, as in the hurricane). Marlin Boulet (how wonderfully Louisiana is that name?) is a member of the NOPD’s Felony Action Squad. That’s right, they go after the most-wanted bad guys. His new partner is a tough guy, serving in Afghanistan before the Big Easy, but he’s still not comfortable with his partner’s methods.

New Amsterdam. This is the story “of a New York homicide detective unlike any other” (Because we’ve never heard that before). John Amsterdam, back in 1642, saved the life of a Native American girl, but took a sword wound for his troubles. The girl in turn saved his life, conferring upon him immortality. Only Amsterdam’s good friend, Omar, knows the truth, but he has a few secrets of his own. Things get even more weird as the Native American’s prophesy about a soul mate starts to come true.

From Denis Leary and Jim Serpico, in January we get Canterbury’s Law, a courtroom drama starring a rebellious lawyer, played by Julianna Marguiles (Carol Hathaway, if you will). Her son has disappeared and she and her husband have moved to Providence, Rhode Island, in order to distance themselves from the tragedy. However, Marguiles’s work in the criminal justice system keeps bringing back the horror that she has had to experience.

We all know, or should know by now, about Skynet and Sarah Connor. No? John Connor? His enemy and then friend, you know, the guy who will be back? No? Come on, The Terminator? Good. This show takes place following Sarah’s destruction of the liquid metal Terminator (Terminator 2: Judgment Day). She and John are fugitives, and enemies from the past, present, and future are always a threat. There is no fate but what we make of it. Let’s make it a good one, folks.

The lone new fall comedy is Back To You, starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton. Their characters used to be an on-air news team in Pittsburgh, before Chuck (Grammer) moved up to the big time. Sadly, after an ill-timed tirade, he finds himself on the slide and working with Kelly (Heaton) again. Too bad they never really got along in the first place. Oh, there are also a couple of off-beat secondary characters to really add some spice.

The new spring comedy, The Return of Jezebel James, features two estranged sisters. The sisters are opposites, one might even describe them as an “odd couple,” that end up living together when one agrees to carry the other’s baby. Jezebel James, if you’re wondering, was the younger sister’s imaginary friend, which the older sister has turned into a children’s book (trust me, it’ll play a part in the goings-on).

Reality-wise, there’s Kitchen Nightmares, The Search for the Next Great American Band, and Nashville. The last two of these focuses on would-be musicians, the first American Idol-style, and in the second, well, they’re all dreamers trying to make it in Nashville. But it’s not a contest-y type of reality show, it’s just looking at the dreamers and dream-makers. Kitchen Nightmares has Gordon Ramsay going from restaurant to restaurant, trying to do good, to help the helpless, striving to put right what once went wrong, and, hoping that his next leap will be the leap home.