Fox Releases Midseason Premiere Dates – Variety

In today’s roundup, Fox announces midseason premiere dates, and “Busy Tonight” releases this week’s celebrity guests.

DATES

Fox has announced its midseason premiere dates, starting with Season 2 of Seth MacFarlane’s space adventure series “The Orville,” which will air Sunday, Dec. 30 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Season 2 of “Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back” premieres Wednesday, Jan. 2 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, followed by the series premiere of the singing competition “The Masked Singer” at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The fifth and final season premiere of “Gotham” will air Thursday, Jan. 3 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. The epic thriller “The Pbadage” debuts Monday, Jan. 14 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The live musical production of the musical “Rent” premieres Sunday, Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. ET live/PT tape-delayed. The new legal drama “Proven Innocent” will premiere Friday, Feb. 15 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Finally, airing on Fox and National Geographic, “Cosmos” will return for its third installment, “Cosmos: Possible Worlds,” beginning Sunday, March 3 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

E!’s late night talk show, “Busy Tonight,” hosted by Busy Philipps, has announced its guest lineup for the week of Oct. 29. On Monday, Oct. 29, the show will welcome actress Vanessa Hudgens, who will appear in Netflix’s upcoming movie “The Princess Switch,” followed by Kristen Bell of NBC’s “The Good Place” on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Oct. 31, Megan Mullally from NBC’s “Will and Grace” will stop by. Other guests this season will include Julia Roberts, Kim Kardashian, Olivia Munn, and more.

Related

DEVELOPMENT

Little Giant Productions has optioned the rights to true crime biography “All American Mafioso: The Johnny Rosselli Story” by investigative journalist Charles Rappleye and private investigator Ed Becker. John C. Richards (“Paterno”) and Cody Newton Gifford will adapt the story for television. The book chronicles Rosselli’s rise from an Italian immigrant in East Boston to the personal bodyguard to Al Capone. Richards recently co-wrote HBO’s “Paterno” starring Al Pacino. Gifford founded Little Giant Productions in 2016, and his original screenplay “American Patriot” was one of six projects selected by Franklin Leonard’s Black List for its feature lab. Richards is represented by APA. Gifford is represented by Greenberg Traurig and Management 360.

DIGITAL

WWE and Riot Games have partnered for a six-part League of Legends web series starring WWE and NXT Superstars. Hosted by WWE Superstar Xavier Woods on WWE’s YouTube gaming channel UpUpDownDown, “WWE vs NXT: League of Legends” will follow League of Legends streamers imaqtpie and Tyler1 as they train their respective teams of WWE and NXT Superstars to prepare for a 5 vs. 5 showdown that will determine which League streamer can call himself the better coach and player. Additional WWE League Of Legends content will appear on UpUpDownDown throughout November and during the NXT Takeover Wargames event, streaming live on WWE Network on Nov. 17 from Staples Center in Los Angeles.

EXECUTIVE NEWS 

Platform One Media announced three hires and one promotion. The television production and distribution studio has hired Steve Lescroart as head of finance and strategy, Jill Danton as executive vice president of production, and Nick Reder as vice president of business and legal affairs. Additionally, Erin Simon has been promoted to manager of creative affairs from her previous position of coordinator.

RATINGS

Much of Sunday’s broadcast lineup saw declines week to week, particularly shows airing against the fifth and final game of the 2018 World Series. “God Friended Me,” “Shark Tank,” “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “Charmed,” and “The Alec Baldwin Show” all saw double digit declines versus their performances last week.