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FOX renews 'The Following,' 'New Girl' & other Tuesday comedies

'The Mindy Project' and 'Raising Hope' will also be back next season

By Alan Sepinwall Monday, Mar 4, 2013 3:00 PM

<p>"New Girl" was one of four FOX shows renewed this afternoon.</p>

"New Girl" was one of four FOX shows renewed this afternoon.

Credit: FOX
FOX has renewed “The Following,” “New Girl,” “The Mindy Project” and “Raising Hope” for next season.
 
The first two aren’t much of a surprise. “The Following” has been virtually the only mid-season success story at any of the networks, though it’s fallen off a bit from its strong debut numbers. It will again be back for 15 episodes next season, because Kevin Bacon doesn’t want to do more.
 
And though “New Girl” isn’t the phenomenon it was at the start of its first season, it’s still been the lone show in FOX’s Tuesday comedy bloc to be a genuine success in its own right. (It’s also one of the very best comedies on TV right now, but quality takes a back seat to ratings at FOX — and everywhere else.)  
 
“Raising Hope,” meanwhile, has been around long enough — and has proven its ability to get a consistent, if unimpressive number, no matter where it’s put and what its lead-in is (or when it doesn’t have one) — that FOX seems determined to stick with it. (And quality can help in a borderline case like this; it’s a very funny, likable show, with the recent “My Name Is Earl” reunion being a notable season 3 highlight.)
 
“The Mindy Project” has not been performing well after “New Girl,” and it’s been through a lot of creative ups and downs, including a revolving door approach to the supporting cast. But recent episodes — particularly the BJ Novak two-parter and last week’s Seth Rogen appearance — have suggested a series that’s starting to find itself, particularly as it’s returned to the idea from the pilot that Mindy shapes her entire life based on her love of romantic comedies. (It’s also helped that she’s been much more self-aware and human in these episodes than in some earlier ones, perhaps because they’re operating according to logic she can understand.)
 
FOX clearly believes in Mindy Kaling, and at press tour in January, Kevin Reilly suggested they made a big mistake trying to promote the entire four-comedy Tuesday lineup rather than just heavily promoting “New Girl” again and using it to boost the shows around it. So there seems to be a belief that they mishandled the entire night, and they’re taking a mulligan on it, other than poor “Ben and Kate,” whose ratings were too low for even likability to save it.
 
FOX had previously renewed “Bones” and “X Factor” for next year, and much of the Sunday animated bloc has also been renewed, but don’t ask me which parts, because I can never follow the advance orders. FOX says these early renewals don’t say anything about the fate of “Glee,” because “As you know, ‘Glee’ is entering its fifth season, and negotiations for that show will understandably take a bit longer.”
 
At other networks, CBS has already renewed “NCIS” and the CW has renewed “Arrow,”  “The Vampire Diaries” and “Supernatural.”
Alan-sepinwall-sm
Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching
Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com
Related Searches: The Following, New Girl, The Mindy Project, Raising Hope

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  • Default-avatar

    Col Bat Guano

    Don't care about The Following, but happy to hear New Girl and The Mindy Project are coming back. New Girl has been strong in S2 and I was afraid it was going to get the Happy Endings treatment. The Mindy Project shows signs of improvement, even if it is still a little spotty.

    March 4, 2013 at 4:16PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    Dustin

    Alan is there any word on Happy Endings? Is it most likely now that it will be cancelled? That would be a tragedy. It is one of the top two comedies I believe, the other being New Girl which thankfully will be back.

    March 4, 2013 at 4:28PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Television

      bitchstolemyremote ABC will probably wait until it sees what the Friday numbers are like (set the PVR for March 29!) but obviously Fridays aren't great news...

      March 4, 2013 at 4:38PM EST
    • Pic_talkback_profile

      forg Happy Endings' fate now lies with its producer Sony and let's hope they can do whatever they did to extend the runs of Til Death, Rules of Engagement and just recently they made Lifetime un-cancel Drop Dead Diva

      March 4, 2013 at 8:59PM EST
    • Default-avatar

      Darren ABC does well with Last Man Standing and Malibu Country, if Happy Endings can match those numbers (they start one week after LMS and MC's finales) then they could be back. This would mean that HE would have to double its ratings, though.

      March 4, 2013 at 9:33PM EST
    • Pic_talkback_profile

      forg HE got 1.1-1.3 for most Tuesdays at 9 PM this season while LMS gets 1.5 on a regular basis on Friday. It's doable to match it but realistically I don't think they can match LMS.

      March 4, 2013 at 9:39PM EST
  • Television

    bitchstolemyremote

    Re: The Following and New Girl: Hardly surprising

    Exciting news that Raising Hope continues to see network support from Fox

    March 4, 2013 at 4:38PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      Dezbot I'm happy about "Raising Hope," too. The "Earl" reunion was a lot of fun.

      Was kind of hoping "The Following" would get canceled so I could quit watching it. Damn my dedication to all things Bacon! :D

      March 4, 2013 at 5:46PM EST
  • Default-avatar

    Ryan Hardy

    *Looks grimly at article*
    Classic Poe...

    March 4, 2013 at 4:44PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    Lbsammills51

    (Insert "I miss Ben and Kate" sad sigh here.)

    I'm happy about New Girl and Raising Hope and I'm good with Mindy Project.

    March 4, 2013 at 5:53PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      amg Ditto. I'm hoping we'll at least get to see the remaining B&K eps at some point?

      March 4, 2013 at 6:09PM EST
  • Default-avatar

    evolution1085

    Raising hope gave us more Nescobar-A-Lop-Lop, and for that I will be eternally grateful (that and it's one of the most consistently funny shows on television).

    I gave up on the Mindy Project a couple episodes in (too many meh characters, most of the jokes didn't land for me) but knowing Fox is giving it one more go, I might check in on the last few episodes of this season to see if the tone has become something more palatable to me.

    March 4, 2013 at 6:11PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Pic_talkback_profile

    forg

    Too bad for the Goodwin Games, this is the show that they never gave a chance at all unlike Ben and Kate

    March 4, 2013 at 9:00PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    exit

    " It will again be back for 15 episodes next season, because Kevin Bacon doesn’t want to do more."

    Good for him. I really wish Network TV followed the Cable TV model and limited the episodes per season. Some of these shows would probably survive a lot longer if they had shorter seasons, there's no reason to give a shows 26 episodes per season and then expect the audience to stick around as the writers struggle to stretch things out in order to meet the episode quota.

    March 4, 2013 at 11:43PM EST Reply to Comment
    • Default-avatar

      Darren No scripted network show has 26 episodes. They all start with 13 then get the greenlight for the back nine. To finish with 22. This year New Girl, The Mindy Project, SVU and Chicago Fire will get 24. Person of Interest and The Mentalist get 23, though the Sarah Shahi episode showed you how they avoid having to pay the main characters for that 23 episode. Beverly Hills 90210 had seasons that went 32 episodes but that was FOX in 90s, they had little else to show other than The Simpsons reruns. Community's first season had 25 episodes, but that was to fill a gap left when the Jay Leno Show finished.

      March 5, 2013 at 5:31PM EST
    • Stewie_vader_avatar_talkback_profile

      mcspinelli I agree. Eliminate all the filler episodes and stick to 13 episode seasons. The quality of TV would improve drastically.

      March 5, 2013 at 7:02PM EST
  • Stewie_vader_avatar_talkback_profile

    mcspinelli

    Great to hear.

    I was worried about Mindy, so this is good news. New Girl was a given. The Following had a really cool Manson-like story idea and KB. Good for him.

    Raising Hope has become a top 5 comedy on TV. This year, the show and it's actors have stepped up their game significantly. The Earl episode and the back to the future episode are among the funniest episodes of the last few years on television. Big ups to Dillahunt and Plimpton.

    March 5, 2013 at 7:00PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    Ken

    The Earl reunion was fantastic (the current character name rendition of "Hey Crab Man / Hey Earl" was great), but I also really, really enjoyed when the two likable characters from Yes, Dear ended up being the owners of Burt & Virginia's sex tape.

    March 5, 2013 at 9:39PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    Guest

    Mindy is awful....but I guess they had nothing better

    March 7, 2013 at 5:51AM EST Reply to Comment

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