American Idol, The Following, Rake And Enlisted Get January Premiere Dates At Fox

Believe it or not, we’re at the point in the year when the networks will start setting their January premiere dates. 2014 is not that far away, and for Fox, it marks the return of winter series American Idol and The Following, as well as the debut of new series Rake and Enlisted.

Fox has American Idol set to return for Season 3 with a two-night, four-hour premiere event set for Wednesday January 15 and Thursday, January 16. The singing competition will have Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick, Jr. serving as judges, while Randy Jackson will take over for Jimmy Iovine as mentor.

Meanwhile, The Following will return for Season 2 following the season finale of Sleepy Hollow, scheduled to air Monday, January 20. Fox released a teaser for The Following, which you can check out below:

Fox will be using the NFC Championship Game scheduled for Sunday, January 19 as a lead-in for their new legal drama Rake, which stars Greg Kinnear as a brilliant and frustratingly charming criminal defense attorney, whose chaotic and self-destructive personal life often get in the way of his professional life. The series will air at 10:00 p.m. ET (7:00 p.m. PT) after the big game, and then the second episode will air on Thursday, January 23 at 9:00 p.m. ET during the series’ regularly set time period. (Glee returns in the spring.)

Also on the schedule is Enlisted, which will debut Friday, January 10. The fact that the series is premiering on a Friday night probably doesn’t bode well for it, to be honest. Fox also has Surviving Jack and Us & Them on deck, but it looks like they’re holding off on airing those until the Spring. Below is the schedule, which also includes the Animation Domination High-Def line-up that airs Saturday nights from 11:00 p.m. to Midnight.