Fox mid-season: “Doc,” comedies, Super Bowl push

We can quit worrying about orphaned situation comedies, floating around without partners.
Fox finally has a sitcom to pair with “Animal Control.” Those shows arrive Jan. 2 … six days before ABC’s “Abbott Elementary” finally gets a pairing.
For Fox, that’s part of a busy mid-season shuffle. The network adds an exceptionally strong drama (“Doc,” shown here) and obsesses on its Feb. 9 telecast of the Super Bowl.
Sitcoms have traditionally been scheduled in blocks of two or four, but lately, they’ve been scarce. ABC has sandwiched “Abbott Elementary” between reality shows. Fox once paired “Animal Control” with a cartoon; it kept it off the fall schedule until another comedy arrived.
As it happens, both of the new shows are father-daughter ones starring TV veterans. Fox’s “Going Dutch” has Denis Leary as a tough Army officer, exiled to a gentle base previously run by his estranged daughter (Taylor Misiak of “Dave”). ABC’s “Shifting Gears” has Tim Allen as a car-shop owner, making room for his daughter (Kat Dennings of “2 Broke Girls”) and her teenagers.
Other mid-season moves by Fox include:
— A richly layered drama. “Doc” – based on an Italian series that’s adapted from real events – has Molly Parker as a doctor who survives a crash, but has no memory of the past eight years. Two returning dramas – “The Cleaning Lady” and “Alert: Missing Persons Unit” – still aren’t scheduled, but could arrive in the spring.
— A pre-Super Bowl push, in the five weeks before the game. On Tuesdays (8-9 p.m.), Gordon Ramsay’s “Kitchen Nightmares” will get New Orleans restaurants ready for the super week. On Wednesdays, “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test” (8-10 p.m.) will include former Super Bowl players, Olympians and other athletes, plus others.
— More, afterward. The post-game show will start a new season of “The Floor.” The next day, “Rescue HI-Surf” will have what Fox calls “its most dangerous rescue yet.”
— Mixed news for Rob Lowe fans. As an actor, he’ll see his “9-1-1: Lone Star” series conclude. (It returns Jan. 20, but only for a final three episodes.) But as a game host, his “The Floor” gets a big push – airing after the Super Bowl and then returning to Wednesdays, after “The Masked Singer.”
— And the usual emphasis on Ramsay. In addition to “Kitchen Nightmares,” he’ll start new rounds of “Hell’s Kitchen” on Jan. 2 and “Next Level Chef” on Feb. 13. Those will both be on Thursdays, in front of “Animal Control” and “Going Dutch.” The comedy-block idea only goes so far.