As the upfront heats up, FOX has added four more series 5/10 to its 2011-12 season list – dramas JJ Abrams’ “Alcatraz” and Bones spinoff “The Finder”; and comedies “The New Girl” and “I Hate My Teenage Daughter.” They join previous scripted pickups “Terra Nova,” “Allen Gregory” and “Napoleon Dynamite.”
Meanwhile, sophomore drama “Human Target” and freshmen “Breaking In,” “The Chicago Code,” “Traffic Light” and “Lie to Me” were all canceled in the same breath.
Things are a bit different than last May, when Fox renewed all three of its new dramas, “Lie To Me,” “Human Target” and “Fringe.”
A bit on the new pickups:
“Alcatraz”: This crime drama from JJ Abrams is about our country’s most infamous prison and the team investigating the mysterious re-appearance of its 1960’s inhabitants in the present day. Stars Jorge Garcia (Lost) and Sam Neill. From Warner Bros. and Bad Robot. A famous prison, plus JJ Abrams, plus a great mystery, plus a popular Lost alumnus, equals a very good bet to land on the schedule.
“Finder”: stars Geoff Stults as Walter Sherman, a former Iraqi soldier with an uncanny gift to unearth anyone and anything. Hart Hanson penned the 20th Century Fox Television-based project, which was set up in an episode of “Bones” last month. Michael Clarke Duncan and Saffron Burrows also star.
“New Girl”: The half-hour show evolves around an optimistic Midwestern woman who moves into a New York apartment with three juvenile guys (Max Greenfield, Jake M. Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr.). Liz Meriwether is behind the 20th Century Fox Television production, which also stars Hannah Simone.
“I Hate My Teenage Daughter”: Jaime Pressly (My Name is Earl) has been tapped as the lead opposite Katie Finneran in this comedy, which centers on two women, Annie (Pressly) and Nikki (Finneran), who now have
daughters just like the girls who picked on them in high school. From Warner Bros. TV.
