The Following isn't the only Fox series to receive an early renewal. Freshman comedy The Mindy Project has also been given the thumbs up for a second season, as has Raising Hope and New Girl, which locks down the three Tuesday night comedies, and leaves room for a fourth, assuming Fox is still planning to continue airing two hours of comedies on Tuesday night (or some other night during the week).
Of the three comedies, Mindy Kaling's comedy The Mindy Project is the newest, having premiered on Fox last fall. After that, it's Liz Meriweather's New Girl, which is in its second season, and now renewed for a third. Finally, there's Greg Garcia's Raising Hope, the lone family comedy of the bunch, which is in its third season, and will be back for a fourth in the 2013-2014 season. Ben and Kate was the fourth comedy in the two-hour block, but it was previously cancelled.
The next new episodes of New Girl and The Mindy Project aren't scheduled to air until March 12 (next week). We'll be waiting a bit longer for Raising Hope to return. But on the bright side, the series will deliver two back-to-back episodes for its finale, which is scheduled to air Thursday, March 28 from 9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and there will be some guest stars in the episode. Here's Fox's official description for "Burt-Mitzvah" and "Mom's Day."
The hour-long season finale of back-to-back RAISING HOPE episodes, “Burt-Mitzvah/Mom’s Day”, airs on a special night and time, Thursday, March 28 (9:00-9:30/9:30-10:00 PM ET/ PT) after AMERICAN IDOL (8:00-9:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed). In “Burt-Mitzvah,” Burt’s (Garret Dillahunt) parents (guest stars Shirley Jones and Lee Majors) come to town with the surprising news that their son actually is Jewish. So Burt takes a musical crash course in his newfound heritage, to prepare for the Bar Mitzvah he never had. Then, in “Mom’s Day,” it’s a Mother’s Day to remember as Burt and Barney (Gregg Binkley) take a road trip to Maw Maw’s (Cloris Leachman) childhood home and discover that her mother may still be alive. Needless to say, multiple generations of crazy gather under one roof.
The news of renewals of New Girl, Raising Hope and The Mindy Project came along with word that The Following was going forward toward a second season.
