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'Rise' falls, but 'Last Man Standing,' 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' are winners as Fox, NBC unveil 2018-19 plans

"Lethal Weapon" will return to Fox, but with a new partner for Damon Wayans, and NBC cancels its military drama "The Brave," which starred Warminster's Mike Vogel.

Tim Allen in a scene from “Last Man Standing,” which will return to TV this fall for a seventh season, this time on Fox. The series was canceled a year ago by ABC.
Tim Allen in a scene from “Last Man Standing,” which will return to TV this fall for a seventh season, this time on Fox. The series was canceled a year ago by ABC.Read moreCourtesy of Fox
    by Ellen Gray
    Published 

Rise, the NBC drama inspired by Michael Sokolove's Drama High, about the legendary drama program at Levittown's Truman High School, will air its final episode at 9 p.m. Tuesday, having failed to make the cut for the network's 2018-19 schedule.

NBC also canceled the comedy Great News, produced by Upper Darby's Tina Fey, and the military drama The Brave, which stars Warminster's Mike Vogel. (Also not returning to NBC: Taken, Law & Order: True Crime, and The Night Shift.)

Read more: Philly's David Boreanaz, Mike Vogel leading TV's military push

This is the week when broadcasters traditionally announce their schedules for the coming season to advertisers in New York, and while they hope to draw attention — and advertising dollars — to their shiny new shows, for viewers whose shows won't be back, it can be a sad time. Although in the age of the rebooted Roseanne and Will & Grace, no one can say for sure that anything is dead for good.

"If there was ever a time for Season Four of Veronica's Closet, it's now," Late Night host Seth Meyers joked at NBCUniversal's presentation Monday morning.

As NBC and Fox kicked things off, here's some of what to expect for their next seasons:

  1. Tim Allen will be back on TV as his sitcom Last Man Standing, which ABC canceled a year ago,  moves to Fox's fall schedule. Not so lucky: The Last Man on Earth, which Fox canceled, along with The Mick, Lucifer, and The Exorcist. It also dropped Brooklyn Nine-Nine last week, only to see the NBCUniversal-produced cop comedy starring Adam Samberg picked up by NBC for midseason. In addition, New Girl will wrap its final season at 9 p.m. Tuesday.

  2. The decision to bring back  Last Man Standing  was made easier  by the success of ABC's Roseanne reboot, which some attribute in part to its star's support of President Trump. But while Allen had suggested that his show's cancellation was related to his conservative views, politics may have played less of a role than business: Twentieth Century Fox Television produces the show. "ABC didn't really prioritize Last Man Standing," and it still drew more than eight million viewers a week, Fox Television Group cochairman Dana Walden told reporters Monday morning. Said cochairman Gary Newman: "Tim's personal politics really aren't a big feature of the show."

  3. Fox's Lethal Weapon will return in the fall for a third season, but Damon Wayans' Roger Murtaugh will have a new partner, played by Seann William Scott. Warner Bros., which produces the show, decided not to renew the contract of Clayne Crawford, who'd costarred as Martin Riggs, after  what the Hollywood Reporter describes as "a string of behavior issues on the set." "This was not our choice," Walden told reporters Monday morning, while Newman noted that "90 percent of the cast is coming back," and likened the situation to that faced by NYPD Blue after the departure of star David Caruso.

  4. Gotham will return to Fox at midseason for a fifth and final run that will focus on the transformation of young Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) into Batman.

  5. Besides Last Man Standing, which will once again air on Fridays, new Fox fall shows include The Cool Kids, a comedy produced by It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Charlie Day and starring David Alan Grier, Martin Mull, Leslie Jordan, and Vicki Lawrence as the rule-breaking residents of a retirement community; and Rel, a comedy produced by Jerrod Carmichael (The Carmichael Show) and starring Lil Rel Howery (Get Out, The Carmichael Show), as a man who becomes a long-distance father after his wife has an affair with his barber and moves his kids to another city.

  6. In addition to Lethal Weapon and Gotham, returning Fox shows, some of which will be on this summer and some that won't be seen until midseason, include: 9-1-1, Beat Shazam, Bob's Burgers, Empire, The Four, Family Guy, The Gifted, Hell's Kitchen,  MasterChef, MasterChef Junior, The Orville, The Resident, Star, and The Simpsons.

  7. New NBC fall shows include I Feel Bad, a comedy from Amy Poehler about a working mother (Sarayu Blue) who is, like all humans, imperfect; Manifest, a drama with a possibly Lost-like vibe that begins not with a plane crash, but a safe landing, after which the passengers discover the world's aged five years; and New Amsterdam, a medical drama set in New York's Bellevue.

  8. The future of NBC's Timeless, which aired its second-season finale on Sunday, remains undecided, along with that of the Mindy Kaling-produced NBC comedy Champions.

  9. Returning NBC shows, some of which won't appear until midseason, include America's Got Talent, A.P. Bio, The Blacklist, Blindspot, Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago P.D., Dateline NBC, Ellen's Game of Games, Good Girls, The Good Place, Law & Order: SVU  (its 20th season), Midnight, Texas, Superstore, This Is Us, The Voice, The Wall, Will & Grace, and World of Dance.

  10. Jennifer Love Hewitt (Ghost Whisperer, Party of Five)  is joining 9-1-1 as a 911 operator as an apparent replacement for Connie Britton, who reportedly had only a one-year contract and who will next be seen in Bravo's Dirty John.

  11. NBC's Shades of Blue, starring Jennifer Lopez, returns for its third and final season on June 17.

  12. Action star Dwayne Johnson is producing and appearing in NBC's midseason competition show The Titan Games, which will feature mental and physical challenges.