Fox is Doing Fine, But Where to Go From Here?

Andy Samberg may not have hit it big as a movie star in his time since departing from Saturday Night Live, but there may be hope for his TV stardom yet: His new Fox show, Brooklyn Nine-Nine , premiered on Fox Tuesday night, and it pulled in respectable ratings.

Fox didn't make any of the ratings gods bow in reverence with its Tuesday comedy block last night, but its two new shows — Brooklyn Nine-Nine and the Seth MacFarlane-helmed critical disaster Dads — premiered to 5.6 million and 6 million viewers respectively, providing a nice little cushion for which New Girl could premiere to 5.6 million and a 2.9 adult demo rating, a tenth of a point up from where it was previously.

It will be interesting to see how each of these shows progresses in the remainder of their seasons: Will Dads' absolutely brutal critical reception catch up to it by a ratings dip? Or will the MacFarlane-ness of it all keep it afloat?

Brooklyn Nine-Nine had a much better critical reception — it had the benefit of features approximately 95 percent less racist jokes as Dads, and it's got the charms of Samberg and comedian Chelsea Peretti — so will its success continue? New Girl's walking a tightrope with Nick and Jess, but last season's latter half proved a valuable case study in the correct pacing of sitcom sexual chemistry, so who knows where they'll even go. And it's notable that New Girl's follow-up, The Mindy Project, saw a drop of 21 percent, with 4.0 million.

To sum up: Everyone's doing fine right now, and the executives at Fox probably didn't add to their ulcers this morning when they saw these ratings. But it could really go anywhere from here.

Image: Fox