SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

Fox has announced premiere dates for The Masked Singer (Dec. 27), Call Me Kat (Jan. 3), Last Man Standing (Jan. 3), Hell's Kitchen (Jan. 7), The Resident (Jan. 12), Prodigal Son (Jan. 12), 9-1-1 (Jan. 18), and 9-1-1: Lone Star (Jan. 18).

This December, Fox takes TV’s #1 show and adds a little twist. Based on the smash hit FOX series The Masked Singer and inspired by a popular segment featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, all-new celebrity competition series The Masked Dancer will have a special premiere Sunday, Dec. 27 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/5:00-6:00 PM PT, Live to all Time Zones), before having its time period premiere Wednesday, Jan. 6 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT). Hosted by comedian/actor Craig Robinson (Ghosted, The Office) and featuring celebrity panelists Ken Jeong (The Masked Singer, I Can See Your Voice), world-famous choreographer and singer Paula Abdul, actor and the former “Giraffe” Mask on The Masked Singer Brian Austin Green and actress and singer Ashley Tisdale, The Masked Dancer will feature celebrity contestants shaking their tail feathers, while covered from head-to-toe in elaborate costumes and face masks, leaving audiences to guess their identities.

New comedy Call Me Kat, starring Emmy Award nominee Mayim Bialik (The Big Bang Theory), and executive-produced by Bialik, Emmy Award-nominated producer Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory, The Boys in the Band) and Darlene Hunt (The Big C), will have a special series premiere Sunday, Jan. 3 (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT), following the NFL on Fox doubleheader. The series then makes its time period premiere Thursday, Jan. 7 (9:00-9:30 PM ET/PT). Based on the BBC UK original series Miranda, Call Me Kat stars Bialik as a woman who struggles every day against society and her mother to prove that she can still live a happy and fulfilling life despite still being single at 39. Which is why she recently spent her entire savings to open a cat café in Louisville, Kentucky. It was expected of Kat (Bialik) to be married with kids by now, but for many reasons, she’s still single – and totally fine with it. Of course, Kat’s mother, Sheila (Emmy Award winner and Golden Globe nominee Swoosie Kurtz, Mike & Molly, Sisters), views her daughter’s single-hood as her own personal failure, but Kat remains determined to live a fulfilling life, and charts her own course to happiness. Working alongside Kat at the café are Randi (Kyla Pratt, One on One), a confident millennial and self-proclaimed “non” cat person; and Phil (Emmy Award winner Leslie Jordan, The Cool Kids, Will & Grace), who recently broke up with his longtime partner. Although Kat celebrates her independence, her single-forever plans may begin to veer off-course, when her former crush and good friend, Max (Cheyenne Jackson, American Horror Story, 30 Rock), returns to town and takes a job as a bartender at the piano bar across the street, working with his friend, Carter (Julian Gant, Good Girls).

Entering its ninth and final season, hit comedy Last Man Standing will have a special season premiere Sunday, Jan. 3 (8:30-9:00 PM ET/PT), following the series premiere of Call Me Kat. Last Man Standing makes its time period premiere Thursday, Jan. 7 (9:30-10:00 PM ET/PT). The series stars Tim Allen as Mike Baxter, a happily married father of three daughters, who finds himself the odd man out in a home dominated by women. The series also stars Nancy Travis, Amanda Fuller, Molly McCook, Christoph Sanders, Jordan Masterson, Jonathan Adams, Krista Marie Yu and Hector Elizondo. After the events of the eighth season finale, during which Kristin (Fuller) went into labor with her baby daughter, while Mandy (McCook) was pregnant with her first child, the series will jump ahead into the near future, when Mike and his wife, Vanessa (Travis), will contemplate their own future, including Mike’s imminent retirement from his lifelong job at Outdoor Man – and who could be his successor.

Also on Thursday, Jan. 7 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT), hit culinary competition series Hell's Kitchen returns for its 19th season in a flashy new setting, as Chef Gordon Ramsay takes the show to Las Vegas, the city that’s home to the world’s first Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen restaurant at Caesars Palace. Season Four of The Resident, premiering Tuesday, Jan. 12 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT), continues to shine a light on the daily heroism of today’s health care workers. From executive producer Greg Berlanti, Season Two of Prodigal Son premieres on Tuesday, Jan. 12 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT). Prodigal Son follows Malcom Bright (Tom Payne), a criminal profiler with a rare talent for getting inside the minds of killers. Fox’s #1 drama, 9-1-1, and last season’s #1 new scripted series, 9-1-1: Lone Star, will have their back-to-back season premieres on Monday, Jan. 18.

Building on its success as the season’s No. 1 entertainment network among Adults 18-49 and in Total Viewers, ABC will expand its roster of stellar, buzzworthy unscripted programming with the addition of several new shows set to premiere early next year, along with the return of some of the most popular and well-known titles on television.

January will welcome Matt James as The Bachelor for the momentous 25th season of the ABC hit romance reality series. Last season, The Bachelor ranked as Monday’s No. 1 broadcast program in Adults 18-49 and was TV’s No. 1 show among Women 18-34. Matt will start handing out roses on Monday, Jan. 4.

An all-new game show block kicks off Thursday, Jan. 7, with the series premieres of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune with Pat Sajak and Vanna White; The Chase hosted by ABC's The View's Sara Haines and featuring James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter all from Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time; and The Hustler hosted by Craig Ferguson.

Anthony Anderson and Mama Doris return on an all-new season of To Tell The Truth on Tuesday, Jan. 26; and Luke Bryan, Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, Ryan Seacrest and Bobby Bones return for a new season of the star-making series American Idol on Sunday, Feb. 14.

Two-time Emmy(R)-winning comedian, actress, writer and producer Sarah Silverman returns to HBO for a new stand-up comedy special and late-night series pilot order. Silverman describes her proposed late-night series as "weighing in on the mishigas of the week and taking live video calls." Most recently, Silverman served as creator, executive producer and host of the Emmy(R)-nominated Hulu talk series I Love You, America and she is currently in production on the Universal comedy Marry Me. She is also adapting her best-selling memoir, "The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee," into a musical that will debut in 2020. Her latest standup-comedy special, A Speck of Dust, garnered two Emmy(R) nominations and a Grammy nomination. Her other television and film work includes Masters of Sex, Bob's Burgers, Battle of the Sexes, I Smile Back and the Wreck It Ralph movies.

In 2014, Silverman won an Emmy(R) for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special for the 2013 HBO comedy special Sarah Silverman: We Are Miracles, which was also nominated for Outstanding Variety Special that year. The special also earned a Grammy nomination for best comedy album. Previously, Silverman appeared in the HBO comedies Mr. Show with Bob and David and The Larry Sanders Show. Sarah Silverman, Judd Apatow and Amy Zvi serve as executive producers on the pilot for the series. Additional credits for the pilot and the stand-up special will be announced soon.

ABC announced the network has picked up the mind-bending, new game show series, The Hustler. Hosted by Emmy(R) Award-winning game show host, actor, writer, comedian and ABC alum Craig Ferguson, The Hustler breaks the game show mold by featuring one player who secretly already knows the answers. Don't be fooled. Just because they have a leg up doesn't mean they'll be taking home the prize. The Hustler is set to begin production later this fall, with an airdate to be announced at a later date.

Each episode of The Hustler will follow five contestants as they collaborate to answer a series of trivia questions, with the goal of building a collective prize pot that increases with each correct answer. The catch? One of the five contestants, the Hustler, already knows the answers but must keep their identity a secret in order to have a shot at winning the grand prize. Throughout each episode, two contestants are anonymously eliminated by the Hustler, leaving three remaining contestants - the Hustler and two others, who must collectively decide who they think the Hustler is. If they are right, they share the prize pot. If the two contestants are wrong, the Hustler goes home with the full cash reward.