As Fox this morning unveiled its fall 2025 schedule, the network has four more scripted series whose fate has not been decided: sophomore Accused, third-year drama Alert: Missing Persons Unit as well as drama The Cleaning Lady, now in its fourth season, and animated comedy The Great North, in Season 5. All are on the bubble as the bottom four lowest ranked scripted series on the network.
Of the four, only one, Accused, developed and executive produced by 24 and Homeland’s Howard Gordon, has finished its most recent season, which wrapped in December. Don’t expect the crime anthology, featuring a different case — and different cast — in each episode to continue as an ongoing series but it could come back at some point as an event, Michael Thorn, President of Fox Television Network, said during the network’s pre-upfront press call Sunday.
“We love the show and Howard Gordon. As you know, it’s anthological, which means it doesn’t have the same timetable on renewals as shows that have locked casts,” he said. “And so right now, we’re talking with Howard if there’s an opportunity down the line to eventize a return, something that can really work for us and Howard, we’d love to do it. Right now. there’s no plan but there could be down the line.”
A hot newcomer during the 2022-23 season, Accused, from Sony TV and Fox Entertainment, was heavily impacted by the strike and skipped 2023-24 altogether. The long gap between seasons was not kind to the show, which returned sharply down in the ratings this past fall.
As for the other three outstanding scripted series, “The Cleaning Lady, Alert and The Great North are still in the middle of their runs,” Thorn said. “We love the teams and those shows. I think there’ll be more to come after they finish their current seasons. As you know, we order series all year round; the upfronts for us is one cycle of ordering. And there will definitely be more sometime, probably later this summer.”
Missing person procedural Alert, starring Scott Caan, may have the best odds of continuing, possibly with some retooling. It comes from Sony TV and Fox Entertainment.
WBTV/Fox Entertainment’s The Cleaning Lady, headlined by Élodie Yung, underwent creative retooling heading into this season after the series faced the tragic loss of its male lead Adan Canto to cancer. The drama’s future does not look promising.
The same goes for the 20th TV Animation-produced The Great North, which was left out of the company’s big four-year, four-series Fox pickup earlier this spring. The network has since renewed all of its remaining animated series, in addition to bringing back American Dad! as part of 4×4 pact with 20th TV Animation, so there may be a shelf space crunch.
