I watch precisely zero shows on Fox. I have vague intentions to watch Empire and Lucifer, but haven’t got round to it and that’s as close as it got. Just looking at the line-up it really looks like they’ve got problems, all the cancellations were from their new shows, two dramas, three comedies and an animation. Which might make you think that they’ve got a solid backbone of returning shows, but most of the rest of the schedule is only two or three seasons old and really nothing to write home about. The new shows actually had a few possibilities in there, but did rather annoy me that I had to re-label “new” to “new or resurrected”. I’m tempted to expand it further and call it “movie spin offs you never expected or wanted to see”

Cancelled
All of Fox’s cancellations were new shows this year. Minority Report got pretty bad reviews and was cut down to 10 episodes almost immediately before being officially cancelled. Grandfathered and Grinder both got pretty good reviews and made it through the full seasons before being cancelled, with some grumbling about Grinder in particular. Second Life had an 11 episode first season but was not picked up, which given that I’ve seen ABSOLUTELY no mention of it in any coverage is not hugely surprising. Cooper Barrett’s Guide to Surviving Life also didn’t get renewed, personally I’d lost interest before even reaching the end of the title. Animation Bordertown was also cancelled.

Renewed
Bones will be back for a 12 episode 12th and final season. I gave up a few years ago when it started going round in circles and am somewhat amazed its managed to find enough gimmicky deaths to keep going so long. The critically acclaimed Empire is renewed for the third season. The rest of the drama line up is all relatively new, and not particularly high profile. Sleepy Hollow will be back, and trying to navigate its fourth season without its leading lady who was written out this year. Gotham continues into its third season continuing to confound me with people’s liking for the Batman universe.

New shows that did manage to get renewals were Rosewood (an utterly unremarkable looking standard medical/criminal procedural) and Lucifer (which I’ve heard some good things about and is sitting in my Amazon Instant Video queue). Scream Queens is renewed, although I would have thought the point of a slasher story is that most characters are either dead or guilty or both, so I can’t see how that gives a second season. Also I thought it was “unholy mess of un-watchable awfulness”

Fox has a pretty solid backbone of comedies with Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Last Man on Earth, and The New Girl. As are the animation block with Bob’s Burgers, Family Guy, and the seemingly immortal Simpsons, which with its upcoming 28th season will surpass 600 episodes.

The status of The X-Files following it’s revival/10th season seems to be a bit up in the air.

New/Resurrected
24: Legacy – I guess the Legacy in question is “ratings that were the envy of the other networks” so why not give it a try. I never got into 24 (it was all just too over the top, I found it funny), but it unquestionably worked for a lot of people.

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Prison Break – of all the shows ever described as ‘cancelled too soon’ or ‘gone but not forgotten’ Prison Break never even broke the top 50! Yet here it is, back for a “limited event” which I guess means a one off series. I think it continues the original storyline with the original cast, but I never actually watched it so have no idea

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The Exorcist – did anyone ever watch The Exorcist and think “wow, there’s a great subject for an ongoing prime-time drama”? The trailer looked like it could be an ok film, but I just don’t see how you make this an ongoing 15-22 episode a year series.

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Lethal Weapon – ok, this one actually makes sense as a film to tv conversion! Casting will be key, but the trailer looks pretty good.

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Making History – so a nerd time travels back to the American Revolution and accidentally stops it happening, so he and his historian friend try to fix it. I barely made it through the trailer, the idea of watching more than 2 minutes is just horrific.

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The Mick – slacker Aunt gets left in charge of 3 rich kids. The title isn’t doing the show any favours at all, but there’s not that much to go on.

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A.P.B. – imagine if Bruce Wayne, rather than deciding to don a dumb costume, invests his money, genius and technology into actually making the police better. Instinctively I like this idea, because fundamentally it just makes sense! I’m not sure the cast quite ‘pops’ and it could fall into a boring pattern with gadget of the week, but it has some potential.

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Pitch – The first woman playing major league baseball. It looks like a fantastic movie, but I don’t see it working as an ongoing series.

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Shots Fired – The fallout and investigation of a police shooting in North Carolina. It feels a little like it’s trying too hard to be controversial and driven from the headlines. It’s described as ‘an event series’ which I think means that it’s a one-off season.

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Son of Zorn – the contender for dumbest name of the year is also the most insane concept. Animated Zorn (basically He-Man) returns to Earth to try to reconnect with his (normal) teenage son and has to deal with ex-wife, suburbia and office work. It’s just about amusing as a trailer, I doubt it can be stretched to a full half hour, let alone a series.

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Star – Star’s a “troubled kid” and wants to be a music star. I shouldn’t have liked this, but the trailer actually worked for me. It’ll depend a lot on how annoying the kids are.