None of the major networks had a particularly fantastic 2014-15 season, but outside of Empire, Fox perhaps had one of the worst. Midseason entry Weird Loners just became the latest Fox series to receive a pink slip, joining Mulaney, Red Band Society, Backstrom, Gracepoint, Hieroglyph, The Following and The Mindy Project in the overflowing cancellation graveyard.
No one was really expecting a renewal for Weird Loners, which debuted to pathetic ratings in the post-New Girl time slot and never accumulated much of a following. Reviews were mixed-to-negative on the show, which centered on four unlikely friends in New York City, and it became the lowest-rated series of the season after its premiere. Becki Newton, Zachary Knighton, Meera Rohit Kumbhani and Nate Torrence starred in Weird Loners, which only made it to six episodes before Fox decided to pull the plug.
While The Mindy Project is expected to receive a two-season pickup from Hulu, where it was a strong performer, the rest of the series are not expected to live on in any other capacity.
As bad as Fox’s season was, the network did find some hits in mega-rated Empire, superhero-influenced cop procedural Gotham and Will Forte starrer The Last Man on Earth. All those series are returning in the fall, along with a new class of drama and comedy pilots including cop procedural The Frankenstein Code, Minority Report and Lucifer adaptations, medical drama Rosewood, Ryan Murphy’s Scream Queens and comedies Grandfathered, The Grinder and The Guide to Surviving Life.
In other interesting Fox news, the network has announced the premiere date for its X-Files revival. The series, which will feature stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, has been announced to launch after the NFL’s NFC Championship Game on January 24. The X-Files, which commences production next month, will air for six episodes, debuting then, airing an episode the next day and then serving as the lead-in for Lucifer. It remains to be seen whether starting a series like that after a football game, which draws a very select crowd, is a good idea, but The X-Files is high-profile enough that Fox, for once, isn’t going to have to worry about the ratings.