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LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Gail Berman is trying to get away from the term "fall launch" to describe how FOX rolls out its new schedule.
"What we're trying to do ... is to begin to sort of look at this thing a little bit differently," Berman, president of FOX Entertainment, told reporters Thursday (July 17) at the TV Critics Association press tour. Because coverage of the baseball playoffs takes over the network for much of October, the network is trying to make the launching of series a more year-round process.
That's no easy task, as the network has learned in the past few seasons. Shows launched at the traditional start of the fall season in late September aired maybe twice before being pulled for a month of baseball, leaving them lost when they return at the start of November sweeps.
Berman says FOX will still have some percentage, although she's not yet certain how much, of its lineup on the air prior to the playoffs. Most of the schedule, however, won't appear until after the World Series ends (and has been promoted heavily throughout the playoffs).
"We know [baseball] will be in October, and in November the bulk of our programming ... will be rolled out," she says. "When midseason comes, that is when ... we have additional engines in our arsenal," most prominently "American Idol."
The network's biggest gamble this season is the summertime launch of new drama "The O.C." It's scheduled to premiere Tuesday, Aug. 5, and air for several weeks before taking October off. It will then move to Thursday nights when the World Series ends.
The idea behind the early launch, Berman says, is to "build traction" for the show, particularly among teenagers and young adults, for when it moves to Thursdays, where it will air opposite TV's No. 1 show, CBS' "CSI," and NBC's "Will & Grace."
"This is a long-term play," FOX Chairman Sandy Grushow says. "[Building an audience on] Thursday is going to take a while, but a year from now, without 'Friends' and with 'Will & Grace' and 'Survivor' being a year older, there will certainly be opportunities for us."