How much faith does Fox have in its new Andy Samberg comedy “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”? Enough to give it a full season pickup and a slot airing after the Super Bowl in tandem with fellow Tuesday laffer “New Girl.”
Fox unveiled the skedding and pickup news Friday afternoon. The decision amounts to a major vote of confidence in the show, which also stars Andre Braugher, that has had a modest start in the Tuesday 8:30 p.m. berth behind fellow freshman comedy “Dads.”
“Brooklyn” in its most recent outing this week delivered a 1.5 adults 18-49 rating and 3.4 million viewers. But the show from “Parks and Recreation” vets Michael Schur and Dan Goor has emerged as a critical fave and has delivered solid increases in Nielsen’s live-plus-3 and live-plus-7 ratings metrics that are increasingly vital to determining the fate of new series. Fox’s number crunching finds that with VOD, DVR playback and streaming viewers factored in, the show has drawn a total audience of more than 14.6 million across five telecasts since its bow last month.
“It’s exciting to see that both critics and fans love ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine as much as we do,” said Fox entertainment chairman Kevin Reilly. “With Andy and Andre out in front of this incredible ensemble, it feels like this show is going to be around for a long time.”
The Super Bowl berth behind “New Girl” on Feb. 2 will go a long way to generating sampling for the offbeat ensembler from Universal TV. Fox announced the post-Super Bowl skedding for “New Girl” at its upfront presentation last May. The network said the two shows would combine for an hourlong “comedy event,” so both single-cam series will remain in their standard half-hour formats.
