Tuning In

Fox shuffles fall sked

With less than six weeks to go before the start of the fall season, Fox has shaken up its schedule, with the biggest difference being the absence of the freshman drama “New Amsterdam,” Zap2it.com reports.

Just as the success of “The Singing Bee” gave NBC the freedom to juggle several key programs, Fox is keeping its successful karaoke knockoff “Don't Forget the Lyrics!” on the air for the fall.

“Don't Forget the Lyrics!” is the central show in Fox’s run. The Wayne Brady-hosted competition series will now air on Thursday nights at 9, and the show’s official fall premiere will come on Sept. 6, following the season premiere of “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” Special hourlong episodes of “Smarter” will also air on Friday nights at 8 for four weeks beginning Sept. 14, when it will lead into the premiere of the new unscripted drama “Nashville.”

Those Friday episodes of “Smarter” will make way for “American Band” (the apparently official title of the show formerly known as “The Search for the Next Great American Band“) on Oct. 19.

Putting “Lyrics” on Thursdays means that Gordon Ramsay’s already controversial “Kitchen Nightmares” will hop over to Wednesday nights at 9, where it will premiere Sept. 19, following the start of “Back to You” and “ ’Til Death.”

Here’s where you need to start keeping up.

With “Kitchen Nightmares” taking over Wednesday nights, Fox has moved “Bones” out of the drama-glutted hour and shifted it to Tuesday night, where it will lead into “House.” Both shows will premiere Sept. 25.

That’s good news for “Bones” and good news for “Kitchen Nightmares,” but bad news for “New Amsterdam,” which stars Nikolaj Coster Waldau as an immortal NYPD detective. Fox already planned to move the series to Fridays beginning in January, so those plans remain potentially intact. For now, though, all Fox will say is that the show has moved to midseason.

Hail to the chiefs

As the nation prepares to elect a new president next year,C-SPAN — with extensive assistance from the National Archives — is introducing a new television series that offers an intimate and behind-the-scenes look at the modern American presidency.

“Presidential Libraries: History Uncovered,” a 12-week series premiering Sept. 7, will air live on location from the 12 presidential libraries spanning the years between Herbert Hoover and Bill Clinton.

According to the network, the series will demonstrate the evolution of the modern presidency with extensive use of never- or rarely-seen film, video, private home movies, sound recordings, photographs, documents and artifacts collected from inside the libraries’ vaults.

In addition, more than 1,000 rare recordings, identified for this series from the libraries’ various holdings, will be digitized by C-SPAN and made available via the Internet. Among the highlights: Lady Bird Johnson’s home movies ofLyndon Johnson’s first Senate campaign in 1941; footage of Herbert Hoover at his Rapidan, Va., mountain hideaway; footage of Ronald Reagan, filmed by White House TV at a behind-the-scenes meeting with advisers at the 1985 Geneva summit with the Soviets, criticizing media coverage of the summit; and television outtakes whereHarry Truman explains his nickname, “Give ‘em hell, Harry.” (Mr. Truman also discusses his relationship with Gen. Douglas MacArthur and his decision to drop the atomic bomb).

‘Family’ affair

TNT has given the green light to “Family Man,” a one-hour drama pilot starring William H. Macy and executive produced by “Hairspray” producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, notes the Hollywood Reporter.

The pilot is described as a drama with witty overtones featuring Mr. Macy as Todd Becker, an uptight, unlikely criminal and respected father of three who, by day, is the upright citizen, advice-dispensing pillar of his community, and by night, heads up a somewhat dysfunctional, bickering gang of burglars.

Mr. Macy and his writing partner Steven Schachter penned the script, and Mr. Schachter is set to direct. The two are also executive producing the pilot with Mr. Zadan and Mr. Meron.

Mr. Macy and Mr. Schachter have a long history with TNT. The 2002 TNT telefilm “Door to Door,” which was written by the duo, starred Mr. Macy and was helmed by Mr. Schachter. It earned the pair Emmys for their script — one for Mr. Macy’s performance and another for Mr. Schachter’s directing. Mr. Macy also landed Emmy nominations for starring in and producing the 2005 TNT made-for-cable film “The Wool Cap.”

Compiled by Robyn-Denise Yourse from staff, Web and wire reports.