Almost Human’s Series Premiere Delayed For A Few Weeks
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Are you ready for some football…and science fiction? Now that fall TV season is in full swing, most of the anticipated new TV shows have already premiered…and, in some cases, already been canceled. With the attention on director J.J. Abrams because of Star Wars: Episode VII, any property from the Bad Robot family is a hot commodity for broadcasters and movie studios. The Abrams-produced TV series Almost Human is definitely on many must-see lists, but now Fox has delayed its series premiere for a few weeks. Don’t worry though, this isn’t a vote of no-confidence from the network.
According to Deadline, Fox pushed the release date for Almost Human from Monday, November 4th to a new two-day special event on Sunday, November 17th and Monday, November 18th. Fox wants to take advantage of the NFL Football Doubleheader lead-in on Sunday night. The first part of the series premiere will air after the second-half of Sunday Football on Fox, while the second part will air the following day as a lead-in for Sleepy Hollow.
Almost Human‘s premiere episode screened at San Diego Comic-Con this past July and at New York Comic-Con last week. The episode received mostly positive reviews, but considering the audience at both conventions, it was almost a foregone conclusion. It seems that the final version of the series premiere is locked, so the delay isn’t a question of quality, but rather the network wanting to give the show the advantage of the largest audience possible.
NFL Football remains the highest-rated programming for any broadcaster, network or cable alike. If Almost Human can retain even a small percentage of that massive audience, it’s likely viewers would return the following day to finish the two-hour series premiere.
Fox also believes delaying Almost Human for a few weeks will help Sleepy Hollow, which has become a breakout hit for the network. They can also pair Sleepy Hollow with the crime procedural Bones for a few more weeks before that series moves to Fridays starting on November 15th.
Ever since Fox picked up Almost Human, the broadcast network has been throwing a ton of promotion behind the series. Fox wants Almost Human to do well, and given the recent success of another genre hit, Sleepy Hollow, there’s a good chance it will find an audience. Let’s hope Fox doesn’t go all Firefly on Almost Human after a few weeks.
The sci-fi series is set 35 years in the future, when police officers are forced to partner up with androids. Almost Human follows John Kennex, a respected LAPD police officer who, after a failed assignment that cost the lives of nine of his fellow police officers, is left injured and emotionally distant from his family and friends. Although Kennex has an aversion to androids, he is nevertheless paired with Dorian, a humanoid robot with unexpected emotional responses.
Almost Human features Karl Urban, Michael Ealy, Lili Taylor, Mackenzie Crook, Michael Irby, and Minka Kelly. The first hour of its series premiere will air on Sunday, November 17th, while its concluding hour will air the next day on Monday, November 18th on Fox.
