With a possible actors' strike tomorrow — joining the striking writers — look what Fox is cooking up for fall: More of Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen, a revival of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares restaurant makeover series, seven other unscripted competition shows, The Simpsons and new Sunday night animation shows.
Fox delayed its fall schedule announcement until Tuesday unlike the other major broadcaster networks, which announced their fall lineups in May two weeks after the Writers Guild of America strike began.
The Fox lineup features only two new series: David Spade's Snake Oil show, in which a panel must decide if Shark Tank-like pitches are for real or fake products; and the Krapopolis cartoon from Dan Harmon (Rick and Morty, Community) about ancient Greek humans, gods and monsters originally scheduled to begin last November.
Krapopolis premieres Sunday, Sept. 24, after an NFL doubleheader on Fox, and then moves to 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 1, following The Simpsons. Fox's popular Sunday "animation domination" block has new episodes ready for fall because production of animated shows requires more than a year.
The WGA walked out May 2 for better financial compensation for broadcast, cable and streaming shows. That immediately shut down late-night shows hosted by Stephen Colbert, Seth Myers, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon, who have aired reruns since then.
And it could be a long time before original scripted series return to TV.
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which have about 160,000 members, agreed Monday to federal mediation with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers — but the actors refused to move its deadline for reaching a deal by midnight Wednesday.
Deadline reports that Disney, Paramount, Netflix, Warner Bros Discovery and other TV studios "have become determined to break the WGA" by refusing to hold talks with the writers until October.
Deadline's bleak assessment, based on industry sources, says that studio leaders believe that by October, most writers will be running out of money after five months on strike.
"The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses," a studio executive told Deadline. Several other sources reiterated the statement to Deadline. One insider called it "a cruel but necessary evil," Deadline reports.
This strategy could force writers to demand that their union leaders "restart talks before what could be a very cold Christmas. In that context, the studios and streamers feel they would be in a position to dictate most of the terms of any possible deal," Deadline says.
Fox starts the season Tuesday, Sept. 19, with Name That Tune and I Can See Your Voice, with no more new shows until Krapopolis on the following Sunday. The full lineup begins Monday, Sept. 25.
Here's the Fox fall schedule (new shows in bold italic):
SUNDAY: 8 p.m., The Simpsons; 8:30 p.m., Krapopololis; 9 p.m. Bob's Burgers; 9:30 p.m., Family Guy
MONDAY: 8 p.m., Kitchen Nightmares; 9 p.m., Special Forces: World's Toughest Test
TUESDAY: 8 p.m., Name That Tune; 9 p.m., I Can See Your Voice
WEDNESDAY: 8 p.m., The Masked Singer; 9 p.m., Snake Oil
THURSDAY: 8 p.m., Hell's Kitchen; 9 p.m., LEGO Masters
FRIDAY: 8 p.m., WWE Friday Night SmackDown
SATURDAY: College football
Fox also has renewed these scripted series: 9-1-1: Lone Star; Accused; Alert: Missing Persons Unit; The Cleaning Lady; Doc and Rescue: HI-Surf; Animal Control; and Grimsburg. Also to air in the 2023-24 TV season are unscripted series Farmer Wants a Wife; LEGO Masters: Celebrity Holiday Bricktacular; We Are Family; and Ramsay's Next Level Chef.
