via press release:
FX SETS MIDSEASON LINEUP
Final Season of Landmark Series Nip/Tuck Begins on Wednesday, Jan. 6
New Animated Comedy Series Archer Debuts on Thursday, Jan. 14
Award-Winning Damages Returns on Monday, Jan. 25
New Drama Justified (formerly Lawman) Starring Timothy Olyphant Premieres in March
New Comedy Louie Slated for Spring Launch
Plus Primetime Movie Lineup Features
of The Simpsons Movie, Superbad, Spiderman 3, Live Free or Die Hard
LOS ANGELES, December 1, 2009 – FX’s midseason schedule features a lineup of new and returning original series, kicking off 2010 with the final season of the Emmy® and Golden Globe® award winning drama Nip/Tuck on Wednesday, January 6; the new animated comedy Archer debuting on Thursday, January 14; and the third season of the Emmy and Golden Globe award winning drama Damages on Monday, January 25. FX’s new drama Justified (formerly Lawman) starring Timothy Olyphant debuts in March, and the new comedy Louie, starring Louis C.K., will launch in the spring.
Nip/Tuck, The Final Season, premieres on Wednesday, January 6. The final nine episodes of the groundbreaking series’ seventh season will air consecutively on Wednesday nights at 10:00 PM ET/PT. The series finale – Nip/Tuck's 100th episode – will air on Wednesday, March 3, 2010. Guest stars for the final season include Melanie Griffith, Joan Rivers, Mario Lopez, Frances Conroy, Donna Mills and Joan Van Ark.
FX will debut its new animated comedy series Archer on Thursday, January 14 at 10PM E/P. Archer is an animated, half-hour comedy set at the International Secret Intelligence Service (ISIS), a spy agency where espionage and global crises are merely opportunities for its highly trained employees to confuse, undermine, betray and royally screw each other. The series features the voices of H. Jon Benjamin as suave master spy “Sterling Archer,” whose less-than-masculine code name is "Duchess”; Jessica Walter as his domineering mother and boss, “Malory”; Aisha Tyler as his ex-girlfriend, “Agent Lana Kane”; George Coe as his aging-but-loyal butler, “Woodhouse”; Chris Parnell as ISIS comptroller and Lana’s new love interest, “Cyril Figgis”; and Judy Greer as Malory’s lovesick secretary, “Cheryl/Carol.” FX has ordered 10 episodes.
Damages, FX’s acclaimed series starring Glenn Close, will premiere its third season on a new night, Mondays, beginning January 25 at 10 PM ET/PT for 13 weeks. The show brings back its award-winning cast with Close, Rose Byrne, Tate Donovan and Ted Danson. Standout series regulars joining the cast are Campbell Scott (Joe Tobin), Martin Short (Leonard Winstone), and guest stars Lily Tomlin (Marilyn Tobin), Keith Carradine (Julian Decker) and Len Carion (Louis Tobin). Damages is produced by Sony Pictures Television and FX Productions. The show is executive produced by Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman, and co-executive produced by Mark A. Baker and Aaron Zelman.
In Justified, which debuts in March (date TBD), Olyphant plays the lead role of Deputy U.S. Marshal “Raylan Givens.” Givens is a modern-day 19th century-style lawman, enforcing his brand of justice in a way that puts a target on his back with criminals and places him at odds with his bosses in the Marshal service. Justified was developed by Graham Yost (Boomtown, Speed) and is based on the popular character featured in several books and short stories by famed novelist Elmore Leonard. Yost wrote the pilot and will serve as Executive Producer/Showrunner of the series. Leonard is Executive Producer, along with Sarah Timberman (Kidnapped), Carl Beverly (Kidnapped) and Michael Dinner (Karen Sisco), who directed the pilot episode. Produced by Sony Pictures Television and FX Productions. FX has ordered 13 episodes of the series, which is shot in Los Angeles.
Louie, starring comedian Louis C.K., will premiere in the spring (month/date TBD). Louie is a comedy filtered through the observational humor of Louis C.K. and his daily life as a successful stand-up comedian and newly single father helping to raise his two daughters in New York. His recent credits include Parks & Recreation and the Emmy nominated Showtime comedy special Chewed Up. Louis C.K. serves as executive producer, writer and director, and Dave Becky and 3 Arts are executive producers. FX has ordered 13 episodes which will be shot in New York.
Preceding Archer’s premiere on January 10 at 8PM ET/PT will be the FX premiere of the Smash-hit feature The Simpsons Movie. The following week on January 17 at 8 PM ET/PT will be the FX premiere of Superbad. Other movie highlights in early 2010 are Spiderman 3 and Live Free or Die Hard.
FX is the flagship general entertainment basic cable network from Fox. Launched in June of 1994, FX is carried in more than 95 million homes. The diverse schedule includes a growing roster of distinctive original series and films, an established film library with box-office hit movies from 20th Century Fox and other major studios that run in prime time and an impressive lineup of acquired hit series.
they’re trying to keep Famke Janssen’s return a secret?
Damages moving to Mondays is interesting, I guess FX didn’t want to compete with White Collar and SouthLAnd, Archer gets Thursday but I wonder if there will be audience crossover with Burn Notice but I think it will attract the Adult Swim audience and Nip/Tuck finishing in March and I guess Justified (love the title) will replace it in the Spring and likewise Louie will replace Archer.
It blows me away that damages is returning for a third season. Damages had some of the worst ratings in the history of cable with many episodes actually falling below the 1 million mark. I loved the first season, hated the second so I wont be watching the third. I guess it is a prestige thing with FX with having Glenn Close in their Stable. Glenn Close is fantastic in the role and well deserving of her two emmy wins for the show. Just a shame that the writing is bad as well as the rest of the actors
I am so happy to see Damages back. I can’t wait to see what trouble Patty is going to cause next. My Monday nights are getting even more crowded though.
Never underestimate the importance of prestige shows for cable television, particularly in a period when the economy is down/rocky. It’ll be interesting to see whether the rumours that Damages will wrap this year are true or not, part of me hopes that it is since the real problem with season two was that it went nowhere and had no real story. Presumably with a series finale to build to things would be different this year.
I think they move Damages because Nip/Tuck take its spot. The final season of nip was supposed to air in fall 2010 or jan 2011. I don’t understand why they changed their mind and decide to air it so early.
Altair I would imagine (like everyone else) they wondered why they were sitting on completed episodes for more than a year if not two years when they could air them now. It probably doesn’t hurt that Ryan Murphy went and got a hit show on Fox that FX can use to piggy back some promotion.
Plus there was probably concern that Damages wouldn’t be a strong enough platform to launch Justified from.
I’m way pumped for Archer. The pilot is hilarious.
I suspect Fox Corp wanted Murphy done with Nip / Tuck (even if it is just promotional work at this point) for FX so he could work on Glee for Fox Network fulltime. Ah, corporate hierarchies.
Damages’ scheduling seems odd – how long has it been since FX didn’t schedule Tuesday? – but I suppose they thought it wouldn’t fare well against The Good Wife.
It will be interesting to see how Archer does vs. Burn Notice, given the similarities (spy action/comedies aimed at young to middle age dudes). I suspect Archer leads in M18-34s, while significantly trailing in all the other demos.
Good point about “Good Wife”, legal vs. legal, Chicago vs. NY, broadcast vs. cable…
I loved both seasons of Damages and am happy its back for another season. Must sell a lot of DVD’s or do well some other way for them to bring it back and add all these guest stars to the shows budget.
I want “The Riches” back. Damn you, FX. So if one of your shows have horrible rating but the cast includes a mega-star like Glen, you save it. But if your show has simply good writing but not mega-stars like “The Riches” you just cancel it without thinking twice, right?
Damages is amazing. With the way they wrap up their seasons; I’d be content with Season 3 concluding it all.
Its good that FX is finishing Nip/Tuck quickly before next fall, and also that they are expanding their nights to Mon-Thurs instead of just Tues-Thurs. Its likely Justified will air Wednesdays at 10, once Nip/Tuck finishes or possibly Tuesdays at 10. Its good Archer finally gets to air and Louie will probably assume the slot once Archer Finishes. Then for the summer FX has the final season of Rescue Me and likely a third Sons of Anarchy season.
Also Damages is avoiding competition from fellow cable shows like Leverage, Psych and Southland but will face CSI Miami and Castle, which may be bad for the series. It doesnt have the convenience this season of already being renewed for another season, despite the critical acclaim.
e there was much more the axing of The Riches than its ratings or the star power of its cast – the fact that the two leads hated each other was a huge reason it died.
FX also has Terriers and Lights Out so I’m guessing Lights Out replaces Damages and airs in the Summer and Terriers airs Tuesdays or Wednesdays once Justified finishes with Rescue Me going into the slot that Justified doesn’t take.
Didn’t FX have originals on Sundays? I think Dirt and The Riches aired on Sundays in their second season.
I don’t like this Monday move at all. As long as they wrap it up right, I won’t be too bothered with it ending, but I’d like to see Damages go for at least two more seasons. It’s the kind of show that can go that long anyway. If it went on for six seasons that would be pushing it.
I’m elated about the return of Damages. The second season was monumentally disappointing to me but then the first set the bar about as high as possible, being my all time favorite season for a drama series so this is one I’ll never give up on. That said, having all these guest stars does worry me a bit. Short, especially, as a regular is something I fear I may have a tough time accepting.
But moving it to Mondays truly is best case scenario. That’s undoubtedly the least threatening group of competitors so I applaud FX here and hope strong promotion follows. Also, I’ll be happy not to have both this show and Lost air on the same night again.
Probably a stupid question, but when the press release says “Preceding Archer’s premiere on January 10…” are they just referring to it occurring a few days before or is that an error, meaning the movies will actually be premiering right before Archer on Thursdays? If not, I can’t see the show succeeding. If I’m not mistaken, the ratings were miserable for its debut episode and that was after a very healthy Sunny season premiere. Liked it a lot though. And excited for Louie as well.
Nick V, I think it means that movies will be premiering as a lead in to Archer which is common practice for FX to do with the premiere of a new show or new season. They used Ghost Rider and Wild Hogs as a lead in to SOA which I thought was pretty good idea.