Fox Broadcasting Co

Fox is putting big bucks behind "X-Quest," an unscripted reality show from Imagine Entertainment, the creative force behind "Apollo 13," and the co-creator of the hit videogame "Halo." Imagine's Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, along with Imagine TV President David Nevins, will work with Fox reality TV guru Mike Darnell to executive produce the show, in which two teams of contestants with no special training are locked into separate, cramped, high-tech biocrafts designed to simulate life in space.

More than 30 million viewers are expected to tune in tonight to see whether Alabama rocker Bo Bice or country crooner Carrie Underwood wins the fourth-season finale of "American Idol." But there's little suspense surrounding which network will win the TV ratings race for the 2004-05 season, which officially ends tonight. Defying wide predictions of cooling viewership, "Idol" has helped give Fox Broadcasting -- the 19-year-old network controlled by billionaire Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

This week in New York, broadcast networks begin to unveil their fall season schedules to advertisers. It's the kickoff of the biggest event of the year in the television business -- known as the "upfronts" -- when advertisers are urged to buy prime-time commercial spots before the 2005-06 season begins. Fox, presenting to advertisers on Thursday, beefed up its scripted shows and made note of its attempt to downplay reality programming.

Through four seasons, Fox's thriller "24" has propelled fans through some fearlessly over-the-top plot twists. One season, for example, hinged on how intelligence operative Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) narrowly helped foil a nuclear bombing that would have wiped out Los Angeles.

When Peter Liguori inherited News Corp.'s FX cable channel seven years ago, it was adrift with a hodgepodge of programming. Slowly and methodically, Liguori built FX into the poor man's HBO, with such in-your-face shows as "The Shield," "Nip/Tuck" and the post-9/11 firefighter drama "Rescue Me." On Thursday, Liguori was named president of entertainment at Fox Broadcasting Co., replacing Gail Berman, who is expected to become president of Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures. News Corp.

The boss of Fox Broadcasting Co. is leaving just as the network is at the top of the ratings game. As her successor will almost certainly learn, News Corp. billionaire Rupert Murdoch's television network has more ups and downs than an "American Idol" contestant. News Corp. President Peter Chernin hasn't indicated who will replace Gail Berman, who in her five-year tenure as Fox Broadcasting's president helped develop hits like "24" and "The O.C." She will soon become an executive at Viacom Inc.'

Fox is looking for a few good squabbling couples for a reality special, "Marriage 911." From the producers of the network's hit "Nanny 911," which features a modern-day Mary Poppins taming unruly children, "Marriage 911" will feature couples getting marital advice from a team of experts. If the program does well in the ratings, it could become a series.

Back in the fall, Fox was in miserable shape, with postseason baseball its only saving grace in the ratings. But thanks to this year's Super Bowl, not to mention the reality smash "American Idol," Rupert Murdoch's broadcast network has come roaring back to life. For the February "sweep" -- one of the quarterly rating periods that help local stations determine ad rates -- Fox will crush rivals in both total viewers and adults ages 18 to 49, the demographic most important to advertisers.

Forget what you may have heard. Fox officials swear that Sunday's Super Bowl XXXIX won't be watered down just to atone for Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" last year. "It's going to be truly entertaining, and anyone who says it's going to be boring doesn't know what they are talking about," said Fox Sports Chairman David Hill. At halftime, "Paul McCartney is going to do an enthralling show that is going to knock the world's socks off.... It will not be watered down at all."

When it comes to ratings for "American Idol," Fox is no longer crooning "The Best Is Yet to Come." In its third season last year, the Tuesday edition of "Idol" was the most-watched show on television, with an average of 25.8 million viewers tuning in, according to Nielsen Media Research (the Wednesday "results" shows were watched by 23.6 million viewers). But network executives are already trying to manage expectations for season four of the singing contest, which starts tonight.