Fox fall

I'll try to keep it short. Fox doesn't seem to have to try very hard to pick up viewers. American Idol is the top ranked show and all it does is broadcast a top-shelf karaoke contest. House is consistently in the top 20. And their new shows have steadily been moving in the direction of viable (far from the fare that the network started with). Doesn't change the fact that they're as enamoured with cheap, unscripted shows as the rest of the business.

Ten new shows are on the network's list for next season: four dramas, three comedies and three unscripted...s. Here's a glance:

K-Ville (9 p.m Mondays), is set in the still-rebuilding New Orleans. It's helmed by Jonathan Lisco (of NYPD Blue fame) and focuses mainly on one cop, played by Anthony Anderson, and his team's dealings with the still-chaotic Big Easy. This is easily the most interesting show on the Fox pickup list.

New Amsterdam (9 p.m. Wednesdays) tells the story of a New York City cop, who "died" in the 1600s only to be saved by the girl he'd sacrificed himself for and made immortal. Of course, he's all lonely because all the people he gets close to eventually die. And he won't until he finds true love. Yech.

Then there's Denis Leary and Jim Serpico, who are responsible for two of my favorite shows ever: Rescue Me and The Job. They've put together Carnterbury's Law, which is reason enough to watch it for me. But it's a courtroom drama about a woman, displaced to Rhode Island with her husband after their son disappears, "who’s willing to bend the law in order to protect the wrongfully accused." The network's description leaves much to be desired. I hope it's different than the 40 bazillion other courtroom shows out there. That's why I like Boston Legal.

The final new drama is The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which... chronicles the story of... Sarah Connor... It's a Terminator spinoff.

In comedy, the big news is Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton as 90s TV news anchors in Back to You. The sitcom vets are getting the chatter (but look what happened to Jeffery Tambor and John Lithgow last season), but they seem to have been handed tome sitcom archetypes that they'll have to break out of. Better, maybe, will be The Return of Jezebel James, which teams Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino with Parker Posie and Lauren Ambrose. Sounds like a much better situation to me... which means it has no chance of being successful. The two play estranged sisters brought back together so Ambrose can carry Posie's baby.

The Rules for Starting Over, the last of the new comedies, brings the story of a group of friends... starting over. They're in their 30s and in Boston and hitting the relationship reset button. The show's only redeeming quality on first glance is that it's helmed by the Farrelly Brothers. It also has Craig Bierko (Buzz Lightyear 1 from Boston Legal) and Rashida Jones (The Office).

New unscripted shows: Kitchen Nightmares sends the Hell's Kitchen guy to bad restaurants and has him clean them up; Idol producers will search for The Next Great American Band; and Nashville follows musicians trying to succeed.

All your favorites are back, so nothing to worry about there, though most won't show up until the fall and some will get bounced around pretty heavily. Here's the fall listings:

MONDAY: Prison Break at 8 p.m., K-Ville at 9 p.m.
TUESDAY: New Amsterdam at 8 p.m., House at 9 p.m.
WEDNESDAY: Back to You at 8 p.m., 'Til Death at 8:30 p.m., Bones at 9 p.m.
THURSDAY: Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader at 8 p.m., Kitchen Nightmares at 9 p.m.
FRIDAY: Next Great American Band at 8 p.m., Nashville at 9 p.m.
SATURDAY: Cops at 8 and 8:30 p.m., America's Most Wanted at 9 p.m., MadTV at 11 p.m., Talk Show with Spike Feresten at midnight
SUNDAY: The Simpsons at 8 p.m., King of the Hill at 8:30 p.m., Family Guy at 9 p.m. and American Dad at 9:30 p.m.

One thing Fox isn't concerned about is confusing or annoying viewers with changes in the spring. Everything in the fall (already displaced and put behind the 8 ball because of baseball) has to make way for the network's big shows: 24 and American Idol.

In January, K-Ville will wrap up and make way for Prison Break's second half, while 24 slips back into its 9 p.m. Monday slot. American Idol, of course, picks up at 8 p.m. Tuesdays and 9 p.m. Wednesdays, moving Bones to Fridays. The Return of Jezebel James jumps into the Wednesday night lineup. Canterbury's Law takes over the Kitchen Nightmares slot on Thursdays, and New Amsterdam follows Bones to Fridays. Then The Sarah Connor Chronicles bumps the Sunday cartoons an hour early (moving King of the Hill and American Dad to the 7-8 p.m. hour).

Notable pickups: Prison Break, which is drawing fire from all of angles.
Omissions: The Winner (which vanished months ago) and Standoff (which was probably never considered). As far as I can tell they're not coming back, though Standoff will be allowed to burn off remaining episodes sometime next month (check the sidebar --->).