• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, May 14, 2024

Fox is so enthusiastic about its new animated comedy for next fall, “Universal Basic Guys,” that the network has already renewed it for a second season, even though the first season has yet to air.

On the drama side, Fox said Monday that its new, Hawaii-based beach rescue series, “Rescue: HI-Surf” from producer John Wells, will get an airing in the coveted time slot following the Super Bowl on Fox next February.

The move is an unusual one because that time period has generally been applied to launching new shows, such as CBS’s “Tracker” last February, not a show such as “Rescue” that will have already premiered five months earlier.

Fox made the announcements and revealed other new-content plans for next season in a telephone news conference on Monday morning in advance of its Upfront Monday afternoon.

The animated show, “Universal Basic Guys” will premiere in the fall, taking up the 8:30-9 p.m. Eastern slot following “The Simpsons” at 8.

Created by brothers Adam and Craig Malamut, the show “centers on two brothers, Mark and Hank Hoagies [pictured above], who lose their jobs to automation and are given $3,000 a month in a new basic income program.

“Now, they’re using their free time and free money to find purpose in a world where they’re no longer needed,” Fox said.

Filling out the Sunday night schedule this fall will be the returns of “Bob’s Burgers” at 9 and “Krapopolis” at 9:30.

In adding “Universal Basic Guys” to the Sunday lineup, Fox will move the new season of “Family Guy” until midseason, said Michael Thorn, president of Fox Television Network and Fox Entertainment, at the Monday morning news conference.

The drama show “Rescue: HI-Surf” will take up residence this fall on Monday nights at 9 Eastern following “9-1-1: Lone Star,” starting its fifth season, at 8 p.m.

At the news conference, Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade would not say whether the upcoming season would be the last for “9-1-1: Lone Star.”

“We are excited about the new season [of “9-1-1: Lone Star”],” he said. “We’re going to see how that goes, as always, and then make decisions on the future of that franchise as we need to. In the meantime, we’re very focused on [“9-1-1: Lone Star”] being a launchpad for ‘Rescue: HI-Surf.”

Separately, Michael Thorn suggested that “Rescue” could possibly be a jumping-off point for a new franchise of action dramas.

Fox has another new drama planned for the fall, the detective-based “Murder In a Small Town.” The show is slated for Tuesday nights at 9, following the return of “Accused” for its second season.

In addition to Sundays, Mondays and Sundays in the fall, Fox’s Wednesday lineup will be the “The Masked Singer” at 8 and the Rob Lowe game show “The Floor” at 9.

Thursday night will feature two returning competition shows, “Hell’s Kitchen” at 8 and “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” at 9.

Friday and Saturday nights on Fox will be taken up by live sports content.

Two other scripted shows -- one a drama and one a comedy -- were also announced for later in the season.

The drama, titled “Doc,” is about a brilliant doctor who is chief of internal medicine at a large hospital. 

The gimmick is that she cannot remember the last eight years of her life after she sustains a brain injury.

The comedy comes from Denis Leary, who produces and stars in it. Titled “Going Dutch,” the one-camera show has Leary playing “an arrogant, loudmouth U.S. Army Colonel, who, after an epically unfiltered rant, is reassigned to the Netherlands, where he is punished with a command position at the least important army base in the world,” Fox said.

Fox sees “Going Dutch” as a companion to its Joel McHale workplace comedy “Animal Control,” which will return later in the season. Plans call for the two shows to be scheduled back-to-back.