FOX reveals 2010 schedule: Say goodbye to ‘Fringe,’ ‘Glee’

As the most popular network these days and the one with most fluid schedule, FOX’s midseason announcement is always highly-anticipated by television freaks like myself.

The sked for January sees good news for Human Target and Lie to Me, perhaps not as good news for fans of Glee and Fringe.The biggest news is that after its fall finale in December, Glee won’t be back until April 13. While it’s understandable due to the longer production time for the program, based on the calendar this means that the finale won’t air until June. That’s weird. Especially for the season’s buzziest program. Not suprisingly, Glee will air on Tuesdays after American Idol when it does return.

Fringe fans will also have to deal with an extended break, though not as long. The winter finale airs on February 4 and then the program does not return until April 1. In even more bad news, it’s sticking on Thursdays, where the ratings have been porous at best. At least it gets to air during sweeps.

New program Human Target gets a really, really nice debut time, with a series preview airing after the NFC championship game and before the season premiere of 24. It’s even more cool because FOX has actually decided to air into 11 p.m. that day, with Target going until 9 p.m. and the two-hour 24 unspooling after. Thereafter, Target gets the cozy post-Idol 9 p.m. spot. Though that’s kind of weird based on the content, it worked for Fringe last season.

Lie to Me has been given a full-season order, but is currently nowhere to be found on the sked. That’s good news for FOX in a sense that they have more programs that they can air, but bad for Lie fans. I imagine that newbies Past Life (which is replacing Fringe and has already seen its order cut from 13 to 7) and Our Little Genius won’t go over that well, so hopefully they’ll be axed. Throw in the end of Dollhouse by January and there’s a little room for Lie. By April, I’d love for FOX to put Target on Thursday and move Fringe to Wednesday, with Lie on Fridays. That’s wishful thinking, but hey, I really, really want all these shows to survive.

Click here for more on FOX’s midseason sked

Share