Fox Will Keep Most Of Its Comedy Block On Tuesday, Extend Primetime to 10:30 PM For Hourlong ‘X Factor’

October 19, 2012 10:00am

After hastily rescheduling the baseball rain delay-plagued Wednesday night episode of The X Factor for next Tuesday, the network has tweaked its plans. Originally, Fox was to rebroadcast the entire two-hour Wednesday episode of X Factor, the first half of which aired in primetime on the East Coast and, due to a technical error, simultaneously on the West Coast. It was to preempt Fox’s fledgling comedy block and face an all-new The Voice in the 8 PM hour. Now Fox will keep comedies Raising Hope, Ben And Kate and New Girl from 8-9:30 PM as scheduled, followed by a re-cut one-hour episode of X Factor featuring the conclusion of the judges’ homes round. To do that, Fox is extending prime that night to 10:30 PM. The move means that there won’t be a direct Voice-X Factor clash on Tuesday.

That is a little bit of a good news for the three comedies, though newbie The Mindy Project is not getting a reprieve. The 9-10 PM comedies New Girl and Mindy Project were already pre-empted for the Presidential debate this week, and the entire lineup will be benched again November 6 for Election Night coverage. That means freshman Mindy Project will be off for three out of four weeks between October 16 and November 6. Such pre-emtions early in the season are disruptive, especially for a new series that has not yet taken hold. Several weeks of a forced hiatus for baseball and X Factor last fall zapped then-freshman New Girl‘s great momentum. The hot comedy was down in its return to the schedule and never recovered.