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BREAKING NEWS: FOX SCHEDULERS
MISPLACE THEIR BRAINS
November 4, 2005
So, did y'all remember to watch your favorite Fox shows this week? If you're a fan of "House," "Bones," "Prison Break" or any of the network's other primetime offerings, hopefully you did. The World Series is over, baseball is gone until spring, and that means Fox has returned to their normal programming.
Well, it's almost normal anyway. Admittedly, the baseball playoffs must make life a living hell for Fox schedulers. If they wait till after the World Series to premiere their fall lineup (as they've tried in the past), the other five networks get a huge head start attracting viewers to their brand new shows. However, if Fox begins airing its shows in September (as they mostly did this year), they end up being forced to put the shows on an almost month-long hiatus, which can spell doom if a viewer ends up forgetting about them as the October weeks pass on by.
I'm afraid this might happen to "Reunion," a show I should have fully reviewed by now, but I've hesitated since its future is so uncertain. The serialized murder mystery returned last Thursday at 9 p.m. So far, its ratings have been soft in a competitive hour. If many of the people who watched in the early weeks don't tune back in now, "Reunion" is probably as good as dead, even though it's intriguing setup - which spans 20 years and follows a group of best friends, one who ends up dead, five that become prime suspects - has kept me wanting to see what comes next.
Fox can get away with claiming their hands were tied there, but they can't blame baseball for the rather poor decision it appears the network is going to make concerning "Prison Break." The prison-escape adventure has been one of this year's most fun new shows. But guess what? It airs Monday night at 9, and, as any true TV addict knows, that's Jack Bauer territory. "24" returns after the holiday season, leaving "Prison Break" without a place on the schedule. I assumed Fox would just move it elsewhere, maybe even pairing it with "24" by bumping it up to 8, which would make sense since both are fast-paced, highly serialized action extravaganzas. (True, "Break" may be too intense and violent for the early hour … but when has that stopped Fox before?)
Instead, Fox scheduling chief Preston Beckman told USA Today this week that "Prison Break" will end the first part of its season - the 13 episodes originally ordered - on Nov. 28. Fox will then pull it off the schedule entirely and will wait until next May, when "24" is over, to broadcast the last nine episodes. Speaking of violence, decisions like this make me want to perform some myself.
It sounds to me like Fox had no plan in place for a full season of "Prison Break" in the event the show was a hit, which it turned out to be. Did they expect it to fail from the starting gate and just decide not to worry about it? (Not as farfetched as you might think. Fox has done this in the past. "Firefly," anyone?) Even now, it seems difficult to believe that they can't find a place for it on the schedule. I know "American Idol" is coming. Can't they shave 60 minutes from the 14 hours a week it seems to air in its various incarnations?
A change in night and time is always a pain for fans trying to follow a show, especially one such as "Prison Break" which doesn't feature one-episode plotlines and is sort of like a 22-hour movie. Miss an episode, and you're lost. But it's certainly better than making viewers wait a half a year to see if Scofield and his brother ever do escape from the big house.
Remember, when Fox decided to premiere "24" in January earlier this year, the network said it was better for the show because it would mean no reruns and no breaks between episodes. So how much sense does it make to insert a six-month hiatus into "Prison Break," which so closely mirrors "24" in its pacing and structure?
The show deserves more, and baseball playoffs or not, Fox needs to do a better job of making sure their new series have the best possible chance of attracting viewers. With a zillion other channels beamed into our living rooms, it only takes a smidgen of annoyance for people to find something else to watch.
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