Veteran television star Kelsey Grammer's new comedy doesn't exactly fit the pedigree of Fox Broadcasting. The network's tastes have long leaned toward the likes of lowly Al Bundy of "Married . . . With Children" or Brian, the sardonic talking dog who downs martinis in Fox's animated hit "Family Guy."
But this fall, Fox is betting big on Grammer's latest sitcom, "Back to You." Comfortably familiar, the show, which debuts tonight, features Grammer as an egotistical local TV news anchor who gets his comeuppance after losing his job in L.A. and returning to his former station in Pittsburgh.
"The edginess is gone," said Peter Sealey, an adjunct marketing professor at the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. "Fox started out as a niche player but they have become very mainstream."
"Back to You" underscores Fox's dilemma. Should the network, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. media empire, cast a wide net with traditional shows and established actors that appeal to the populous crowd that flocks to Fox's "American Idol?" Or should it be true to its roots and offer irreverent fare loved by the young viewers that advertisers pay a premium for?
Already, Fox's whiskers are getting a little gray.
Last season, the median age of Fox's audience was 42. Compare that with five years ago, when its median age was 35. To be sure, all of the major broadcasters -- ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox -- are struggling to manage the median age of their audiences, at a time when their core viewers are getting older. Baby boomers, the first generation of Americans who were weaned on TV, are now in their mid-40s, 50s and even early 60s.
The other big networks have older audiences than Fox, but none has aged as quickly.
"It's not so much that Fox has aged up but that Fox has come of age," said Kevin Reilly, president of Fox Entertainment, who joined the company in July. "What you have is Fox truly becoming a broadcast network."
The swift shift in demographics at Fox can be attributed to the No. 1 show in television: "American Idol." For the last three TV seasons, the enormously popular singing contest has lifted Fox to the top of the network heap in ratings among 18- to 49-year-olds, the group that advertisers typically target.
The program last season averaged more than 30 million viewers an episode -- viewers of all ages and from all around the country.
