FOX ANNOUNCES NEW PRIMETIME SCHEDULE FOR 2019-2020 SEASON
FOUR NEW COMEDIES AND SIX NEW DRAMAS JOIN LINEUP
ANIMATED COMEDY “BLESS THE HARTS,” FROM EMMY AWARD WINNER EMILY SPIVEY, AND FEATURING THE VOICES OF KRISTEN WIIG, MAYA RUDOLPH, JILLIAN BELL AND IKE BARINHOLTZ,
TO PREMIERE SUNDAYS, USHERING IN NEW ERA OF ANIMATION DOMINATION
CRIME DRAMA “PRODIGAL SON,” FROM EXECUTIVE PRODUCER GREG BERLANTI, AND STARRING TOM PAYNE AND MICHAEL SHEEN, TO DEBUT MONDAYS
“THE RESIDENT” MOVES TO TUESDAYS, FOLLOWED BY SIXTH AND FINAL SEASON OF “EMPIRE”
FAMILY DRAMA “NOT JUST ME,” STARRING BRITTANY SNOW AND ACADEMY AWARD WINNER TIMOTHY HUTTON, TO PREMIERE WEDNESDAYS, FOLLOWING BROADCAST’S #1 NEW SERIES, “THE MASKED SINGER”
“WWE’S SMACKDOWN LIVE” TO DEBUT OCTOBER 4, AND AIR WEEKLY ON FRIDAYS
FIRST-EVER “9-1-1” NEW INSTALLMENT, “9-1-1: LONE STAR,” STARRING ROB LOWE, BEGINS ITS TWO-NIGHT PREMIERE EVENT, FOLLOWING THE NFC CHAMPIONSHIP ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 19, AND CONTINUES MONDAY, JANUARY 20
SEASON THREE OF “THE MASKED SINGER” TO LAUNCH FOLLOWING “SUPER BOWL LIV,” SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 2
GRITTY POLICE DRAMA “DEPUTY,” STARRING STEPHEN DORFF, TO PREMIERE MIDSEASON
SOUTHERN GOTHIC FAMILY DRAMA “FILTHY RICH,” STARRING KIM CATTRALL, AND WRITTEN, DIRECTED AND EXECUTIVE-PRODUCED BY TATE TAYLOR, TO LAUNCH MIDSEASON
PULSING THRILLER “neXt,” STARRING JOHN SLATTERY, TO PREMIERE MIDSEASON
FAMILY COMEDY “OUTMATCHED,” STARRING JASON BIGGS AND MAGGIE LAWSON, TO DEBUT MIDSEASON
UNSCRIPTED SERIES “ULTIMATE TAG,” HOSTED BY FOOTBALL SUPERSTARS JJ, TJ AND DEREK WATT, TO LAUNCH MIDSEASON
ANIMATED COMEDY “DUNCANVILLE,” FROM GOLDEN GLOBE WINNER AMY POEHLER AND EMMY AWARD WINNERS MIKE AND JULIE SCULLY, AND FEATURING THE VOICE OF POEHLER IN TWO MAJOR ROLES, ALSO TO DEBUT AT MIDSEASON
“THE GREAT NORTH,” A NEW ANIMATED COMEDY FROM EMMY WINNER LOREN BOUCHARD AND FEATURING VOICES OF NICK OFFERMAN, MEGAN MULLALLY, JENNY SLATE AND WILL FORTE, TO PREMIERE IN 2020
Charlie Collier, CEO, FOX Entertainment, today will unveil the FOX primetime slate for the 2019-2020 television season to the national advertising community during its annual Upfront Presentation at the Beacon Theatre.
“Today marks a new beginning for FOX Entertainment. So it is with a start-up mindset and, upon an incredible foundation of assets, that we deliver our first slate of new comedies, dramas and unscripted series,” said Collier. “Alongside top creators and talent, and through innovative partnerships across the industry, we are redefining what it means to be an entertainment company, and what it means to be FOX, for 2019 and beyond.”
The new dramas joining the lineup this fall are NOT JUST ME and PRODIGAL SON.
Executive producer Jason Katims (“Friday Night Lights,” “Parenthood”) and writer Annie Weisman (“About A Boy,” “Desperate Housewives”) bring you NOT JUST ME, the story of an unusual family formed through extreme odds, exploring such hot-button issues as identity, human connection and what it truly means to be a family. An only child (Brittany Snow, the “Pitch Perfect” franchise, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”) finds her life turned upside down when her father (Academy Award winner Timothy Hutton, “American Crime,” “Ordinary People”) reveals that, over the course of his prize-winning career as a pioneering fertility doctor, he used his own sperm to conceive upwards of a hundred children, including two new sisters (Megalyn Echikunwoke, “The Following,” “90210,” and Emily Osment, “The Kominsky Method,” “Young & Hungry”). As these three young women slowly embrace their new reality, they will attempt to form an untraditional bond as sisters, even as they must welcome a tidal wave of new siblings into their rapidly expanding family. The series also stars Mustafa Elzein (“Sequestered”), Mo McRae (“Big Little Lies,” “Pitch”) and Victoria Cartagena (“Manifest”).
PRODIGAL SON is a fresh take on a crime franchise with a provocative and outrageous lead character and a darkly comedic tone, from Emmy Award-nominated executive producers Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter (“Riverdale,” “The Flash”) and writers Chris Fedak (“Deception,” “Chuck”) and Sam Sklaver (“Deception,” “Bored to Death”). The series stars Tom Payne (“The Walking Dead”) as the son of a convicted serial killer (Emmy Award and Golden Globe nominee Michael Sheen, “Masters of Sex,” “Frost/Nixon”), who has made hunting murderers his life’s work. The series also stars Bellamy Young (“Scandal”), Emmy Award and Golden Globe nominee Lou Diamond Phillips (“Longmire,” “Stand and Deliver”), Halston Sage (THE ORVILLE), Aurora Perrineau (“The Carmichael Show”), Frank Harts (“The Path”) and Keiko Agena (“Dirty John”).
The new animated comedy joining the lineup this fall is BLESS THE HARTS. Created and executive-produced by Emmy Award winner Emily Spivey (“The Last Man on Earth,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Saturday Night Live”), BLESS THE HARTS follows the Harts, a Southern family that is always broke, and forever struggling to make ends meet. They one day hope to achieve the American dream, but they’re already rich – in friends, family and laughter. The series features the voices of Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee Kristen Wiig (“Bridesmaids,” “Saturday Night Live”), Emmy Award and Screen Actors Guild Award nominee Maya Rudolph (“The Good Place,” “Bridesmaids”), Emmy Award nominee Jillian Bell (“Workaholics,” “Fist Fight”), Ike Barinholtz (“Blockers”), Fortune Feimster (“Office Christmas Party,” “Chelsea Lately”), Drew Tarver (“The Other Two”) and Mary Steenburgen (“The Last Man on Earth,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm”). Executive producers on the series include Academy Award winners Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” “The LEGO Movie” franchise) and Kristen Wiig.
WWE’s flagship program, WWE’S SMACKDOWN LIVE, debuts Friday, Oct. 4 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. The weekly, two-hour live event will air 52 weeks a year, offering fans a unique combination of edge-of-your-seat action, unpredictable drama and world-class athleticism. WWE’S SMACKDOWN LIVE has helped launch the careers of pop-culture icons Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, John Cena, Undertaker, Triple H, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and The Bella Twins.
Also this fall, THE RESIDENT moves to a new night and time on Tuesdays (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT), followed by the sixth and epic final season of the groundbreaking cultural phenomenon EMPIRE (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT), which returns to its original time period. Season Six promises to be filled with drama, shocking surprises and more jaw-dropping moments. The award-winning drama about a family dynasty set within the glamorous and sometimes dangerous world of hip-hop music has generated chart-topping hits, and socially relevant storylines, introduced “Boo Boo Kitty” into the zeitgeist and delivered over-the-top OMG moments weekly. Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) and Lucious (Terrence Howard), the two larger-than-life characters at the center of the series, have taken viewers through the highs and lows that come with fame and fortune. As the series enters its final season, one thing is for sure, the Lyons never go out without a bang.
In 2020, additional new series and events joining the schedule include dramas 9-1-1: LONE STAR, DEPUTY, FILTHY RICH and neXt; live-action comedy OUTMATCHED; and animated comedies DUNCANVILLE and THE GREAT NORTH.
FOX’s #1 drama, 9-1-1, expands its reach to the city of Austin, TX, with its first-ever new installment. 9-1-1: LONE STAR debuts with a special two-night event beginning Sunday, Jan. 19, immediately following the NFC CHAMPIONSHIP, and continuing on Monday, Jan. 20. From 9-1-1 co-creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Tim Minear, the series stars Rob Lowe (“The Grinder,” “Parks and Recreation,” “The West Wing”) as a sophisticated New York cop who, along with his son, re-locates to Austin and must try to balance saving those who are at their most vulnerable with solving the problems in his own life. Rob Lowe also serves as a co-executive producer on the series.
Additionally, Season Three of THE MASKED SINGER, this season’s #1 new series, will premiere immediately following SUPER BOWL LIV on Sunday, Feb. 2, and will make its time period premiere on Wednesday, Feb. 4 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT).
From writer/executive producer Will Beall (“Aquaman,” “Gangster Squad”) and director/executive producer David Ayer (“Training Day,” “End of Watch”), DEPUTY brings the spirit of a classic Western and a gritty authenticity to the modern cop drama. When the Los Angeles County’s Sheriff dies, an arcane rule forged back in the Wild West thrusts the most unlikely man into the job: a fifth-generation lawman (Stephen Dorff, “True Detective”), more comfortable taking down bad guys than navigating a sea of politics, who won’t rest until justice is served. DEPUTY also stars Yara Martinez (“Jane the Virgin,” “True Detective”), Brian Van Holt (“Cougar Town”), Siena Goines (“Andi Mack”), Bex Taylor-Klaus (“Arrow”), Shane Paul McGhie (“What Men Want”) and Mark Moses (“Mad Men”).
FILTHY RICH is a southern Gothic family drama 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 (Emmy Award and Golden Globe nominee 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”). Kim Cattrall also serves as a producer on the series.
From creator and executive producer Manny Coto (“24: Legacy”) 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 and transforming us in ways we don’t yet understand. Starring 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, and 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 Cappucino (“Jessica Jones”) and Evan Whitten (THE RESIDENT).
The new midseason comedies are DUNCANVILLE and OUTMATCHED.
From Golden Globe winner Amy Poehler (“Parks and Recreation,” “Saturday Night Live”) and Emmy Award winners Mike and Julie Scully (THE SIMPSONS, “The Carmichael Show,” “Parks and Recreation”) comes DUNCANVILLE, an animated family comedy centered around a spectacularly average 15-year-old boy with a rich fantasy life, and the people in his world. Poehler voices the series’ two leading characters, DUNCAN and his mother, ANNIE. The series also features the voices of Emmy Award winner Ty Burrell (“Modern Family”), Emmy Award nominee Riki Lindhome (“Garfunkel and Oates: Trying to be Special,” “Another Period”), Betsy Sodaro (“Another Period,” “Disjointed”) and Yassir Lester (“Making History”), as well as guest voices Rashida Jones (“Parks and Recreation,” “Angie Tribeca”) and Wiz Khalifa (“American Dad!,” “BoJack Horseman”).
From writer/executive producer Lon Zimmet (“LA to Vegas”), and starring Jason Biggs (“Orange Is the New Black,” the “American Pie” franchise) and Maggie Lawson (“Lethal Weapon,” “Psych”), OUTMATCHED is a multi-camera family comedy about a blue-collar couple in Atlantic City trying to raise four kids – three of whom just happen to be certified geniuses. The series also stars Tisha Campbell-Martin (“Dr. Ken,” “My Wife and Kids”), Jack Stanton (“The Mick”), Connor Kalopsis (“The Grinder”), Ashley Boettcher (“Lost in Oz”) and Oakley Bull (“Beautiful Boy”).
Also premiering in 2020 is new animated comedy THE GREAT NORTH, from BOB’S BURGERS creator Loren Bouchard. The series 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. Featured voices on the series include Nick Offerman (“Parks and Recreation”), Megan Mullally (“Will & Grace”), Jenny Slate (BOB’S BURGERS), and Will Forte (“The Last Man on Earth”).
Hosted by football superstars and brothers JJ, TJ and Derek Watt, ULTIMATE TAG is a high-octane physical competition show based on the classic playground game of chase. The thrilling, energy-sapping competition will premiere in 2020.
Additionally, LAST MAN STANDING and THE ORVILLE will return in 2020.
During the 2019-2020 season, several FOX series will celebrate major milestones, including EMPIRE’s 100th episode, FAMILY GUY’s 350th episode, THE RESIDENT’s 50th episode and HELL’S KITCHEN’s 300th episode.
FOX’s full 2019-2020 programming slate is – Dramas: 9-1-1, 9-1-1: LONE STAR, DEPUTY, EMPIRE, FILTHY RICH, neXt, NOT JUST ME, THE ORVILLE, PRODIGAL SON, THE RESIDENT; Comedies: BLESS THE HARTS, BOB’S BURGERS, DUNCANVILLE, FAMILY GUY, THE GREAT NORTH, LAST MAN STANDING, OUTMATCHED, THE SIMPSONS; Unscripted: BEAT SHAZAM, FIRST RESPONDERS LIVE, GORDON RAMSAY’S 24 HOURS TO HELL AND BACK, HELL’S KITCHEN, THE MASKED SINGER, MASTERCHEF, MASTERCHEF JUNIOR, PARADISE HOTEL, SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, SPIN THE WHEEL, ULTIMATE TAG.