FOX will fill its summer schedule with a slate of mostly familiar shows — and it will also take a low-risk stab at original scripted programming.
A new season of Hell’s Kitchen and the returns of Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? and Don’t Forget the Lyrics will join So You Think You Can Dance in the network’s summer lineup. FOX will also unveil a scripted series called Mental on Friday nights, having picked up the international co-production earlier this month.
Those shows, combined with new episodes of Cops and America’s Most Wanted, will give the network original programming on five nights a week (Tuesday through Saturday) for at least part of the summer.
So You Think You Can Dance will kick things off with a two-hour premiere on Thursday, May 21, and will pick up its usual Wednesday-Thursday schedule the following week. Mental, which stars Chris Vance as a psychiatrist at an L.A. hospital and Annabella Sciorra as his boss, debuts Friday, May 22 at 9 p.m., following the return of Don’t Forget the Lyrics.
New episodes of Fifth Grader will take over Fridays at 8 starting July 3, and the next installment of Hell’s Kitchen fires up its burners on Tuesday, July 21. FOX will also broadcast the Teen Choice Awards in August.
Here’s a rundown of FOX’s summer premieres:
Thursday, May 21
8 p.m. So You Think You Can Dance (two hours)
Friday, May 22
8 p.m. Don’t Forget the Lyrics
9 p.m. Mental
Wednesday, May 27
8 p.m. So You Think You Can Dance (time-period debut; two hours)
Friday, July 3
8 p.m. Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?
Tuesday, July 21
8 p.m. Hell’s Kitchen (two hours)
Source: Zap2It
