Fox Broadcasting Co

A brewing rebellion by Fox affiliate television stations, coupled with resistance from the advertising world, prompted Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. on Monday to abandon its plan to publish a book and air a two-part TV interview with O.J. Simpson. The interview and the book, both titled "If I Did It," were announced last Tuesday and were widely viewed as a device to bolster Fox's flagging ratings during the important November sweeps.

Fox has pulled its game show "The Rich List" from its schedule after one episode, as well as the first-year comedy "Happy Hour," because of low ratings. An original episode of "The O.C." will air in place of "The Rich List" from 9 to 10 p.m. Wednesday. A second original episode of "The O.C." will also air in its regular 9 to 10 p.m. Thursday slot. A rerun of the first-year comedy " 'Til Death" will air in place of "Happy Hour'' from 8:30 to 9 p.m. Thursday.

Fired Fox baseball commentator Steve Lyons, who has won support nationwide since losing his job, acknowledged Wednesday that he signed an agreement not to say anything else the network deemed inappropriate after a 2004 incident involving then-Dodger Shawn Green. Lyons acknowledged the agreement only after being asked whether Fox had ever given him a warning. "It said, 'If I mess up again, they can fire me,' " Lyons said. "But it's what they deem a mess-up-able offense."

Steve Lyons, fired by Fox for on-air comments the network deemed inappropriate, will keep his job as a part-time television commentator for the Dodgers. The team, in a statement issued Monday, said Lyons would undergo diversity training and that he was given probationary guidelines. Of the diversity training, Lyons said, "I'm happy to do it."

In what is becoming as much an autumn ritual for Fox television as its broadcast of Major League Baseball's postseason, the network announced Thursday that it's reshuffling its fall prime-time lineup and substituting in some new players. The network, which finished last season No. 1 among adults 18 to 49, is moving a pair of its new dramatic shows -- "Justice" and "Vanished" -- to different nights. And it's also trading 9 p.m. and 8 p.m.

In a move that seems certain to force a showdown over what constitutes indecency on the airwaves, four TV broadcast networks and their affiliates announced Friday that they had united to challenge a Federal Communications Commission ruling that deemed language used in several of their shows indecent. CBS, Fox, ABC and Hearst-Argyle Television Inc. filed notices of appeal in federal court in New York and Washington late Thursday and early Friday.

Fox Broadcasting said Thursday that it would soon make its popular prime-time programs, such as "24" and "Prison Break," available on the Internet and video-on-demand services as part of a precedent-setting deal that shares revenue with its affiliate station groups. Unlike its media rivals -- NBC, ABC and CBS -- which have miffed their TV affiliates by negotiating short-term arrangements to offer downloads on various other outlets and their own websites, Fox took a different approach.

On his first day as a story assistant for the reality TV series "Renovate My Family," Zachary Isenberg said, his bosses made an unusual request: Fill out your time card for the next three weeks of work. Isenberg was puzzled. How could he estimate his hours before he worked them? "They said, 'It's crazy in production and the accountants need the paperwork right now,' " the 32-year-old writer recalled. So Isenberg, who hoped that the job would further his prospects in TV, did as he was told.

News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch on Monday handed control of the company's 35 television stations to Roger Ailes, the executive who in nine years built the Fox News Channel into a politically influential ratings juggernaut. Ailes, 65, replaces the media baron's 33-year-old son, Lachlan Murdoch, who abruptly resigned his management positions within the company last month amid reported tensions with his father.

Peter Liguori, the television executive formerly known as Mr. FX, faced television critics for the first time as Fox's president of entertainment on Thursday, and the topics could have ranged from the relative lack of reality programming on the fall schedule to the pressures of heading the No. 1 network among younger viewers, to whether he could transfer his sophisticated programming sensibility from cable to broadcast. But, alas, that would be really boring.