Today FOX announced their 2011 midseason schedule and it includes the return of Kitchen Nightmares and American Idol, four series premieres (The Chicago Code, Million Dollar Money Drop, Mixed Signals, Bob’s Burgers), and some series program shuffling.  American Idol will now air Wednesdays and Thursdays, and it will serve as a lead-in to Human Target and Bones on those respective days.  So what does all this mean for the fantastic sci-fi series Fringe?  Not good things.  Beginning January 28 the show will be bumped to Friday nights, also known as the the graveyard for ratings-deprived TV series (read: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Dollhouse). Now before you start panicking, you should know that FOX has made this move with good intentions.  According to Deadline “almost half” the show’s viewers record-and-watch using DVRs, and FOX prez Kevin Reilly has high hopes that Fringe’s cult following will stick with the show no matter what night it falls on (you’ve got that right, partner!). “Fringe has a very particular, loyal audience,” says Reilly. “If [Fringe] could stay near the current levels, we’ll get a big trade-up on Friday and will solve our problem there.” Fringe will replace The Good Guys in the 9PM slot. Though they won’t commit to cancellation just yet, FOX has confirmed that Guys and Running Wilde will not be receiving additional episodes this season.

Update: I managed to find a juicier quote from Reilly on the Fringe Friday situation: “We are not killing the show. Over the last week, over 45% of the audience time-shifted the show. That’s almost half of the dedicated audience watching it on their DVRs. It’s been such a loyal fanbase. I will be really disheartened if the viewer base decides to not watch because it shifted one night. I hope they go with it, and if not they have the option of picking it up on their DVRs. If it does anywhere near what it did on Thursdays, we can glue that show to the schedule because it can be a big win for us.”  And there you have it–no need to jump to scary conclusions just yet, Fringe fans.

Look after the break to view the FOX midseason schedule.

[Via Deadline, here & here; EW] Continue reading FOX announces midseason schedule, moves ‘Idol’ to Thursday, bumps ‘Fringe’ to Friday →