LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- "It's going in the fall. We scheduled it. It's a very good show," Fox Networks Group Chairman Peter Rice told reporters about their delayed drama "Terra Nova" following today's announcement of the network's 2011-12 season lineup (read the full release). "And we're excited about it... we're very confident about it in the fall which is why we officially scheduled it. And we think the show's going to be great."
Other highlights from Rice and Fox Broadcasting Company President Kevin Reilly's press conference:
-- Rice on the expected success of "The X Factor": "We had more people show up to auditions of 'X Factor' than we've ever had show up for auditions of 'Idol.' And now we're shooting the live auditions in front of 5,000 people. It's fun to watch Simon [Cowell] tell that audience that they're the fifth judge."
-- Reilly on "Terra Nova" being only listed for the fall: "I'm not saying that it could not return next year. We really would like to try to get two dramas in the slot [with 'Alcatraz']. I think it's likely with both the real estate issue of Monday and then the turnaround on the production we would only do 13 but anything's possible. I don't think it's prohibitive that we could do additional episodes next year."
-- Reilly on "America's Most Wanted" being demoted to four, two-hour quarterly specials: "It's no secret to John [Walsh]: we have not made money on the show in quite a while. It was economically getting to the place where it was not really particularly viable but we wanted to keep the franchise alive. John is important to News Corp. He got in a number of conversations as to where that series could continue. You'd have to talk to him about what that ends up being... I would not be at all surprised if you see the show pop up somewhere else. And that's something you should follow up with John on."
-- Reilly on its Saturday late-night being devoted to repeats: "We always have an appetite for any air that we own. But [if] next season goes the way we expect to see it go we can start turning our attention to time periods that we own that we'd like to improve things on."
-- Reilly on the cancellations of "Human Target," "Lie to Me," "The Chicago Code," etc.: "I actually think pretty candidly there's a couple of shows that we had to let go - because we just simply didn't have the shelf space - would probably have made the cut on some other networks. These shows had audiences, they were good shows. Ultimately we could be more conservative this year. But we want to take the pillars of strength we have right now and seed into the shows for the next chapter. We felt that we gave these shows a shot but we wanted to try some new ones."
-- Rice on whether we'll ever see a "24" movie: "Well I don't work for the movie company but my intelligence around the lot is everybody would very much like to make a '24' movie and I believe that they are working on the script. So when they say 'we don't have a script' it means that they don't have a completed script that they're about to go shoot. I think there's a great desire to [get] Jack Bauer on the big screen."
-- Reilly on the network's decision to pass on "Locke & Key": "It's actually a cool pilot with good talent involved. There were tough decisions. I wish it was an easier decision to make but it really just came down to we liked the shows we picked and they fit better. It sounds pat but that's really what it is."
-- Rice on the contract status of "American Idol's" judges: "Everyone [generally] has multiple year contracts. Jennifer [Lopez] had a single-year contract. She's had a really fun time doing the show. We've loved having her on the show... and our hope and expectation is that she'll return."
-- Reilly on a proposed March block of four comedies on Tuesday nights for six weeks when "Glee" would normally be in repeats: "We've got five shows in the works [and] four slots. So three of them will be in rotation already for the fall. We want to size up how those shows do. We wouldn't be announcing this block if we weren't pretty damn confident in what we've got working there so we'll look and see how we want to organize the block around it. And then we have at least two shows in there we both like a lot. Both pilots had very strong actors at the center, good concepts and really good execution. A couple of things you're going to see I think is maybe a piece of casting or a little bit of reshooting could be done. We want to do that work over the summer and then as we go into the fall look at which of those - both of them could make the cut, ultimately - and then organize the block around that."
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