The announcement of the fall TV schedule generally means less to Fox than to the other networks, because its real season doesn't get under way until January, when American Idol returns. And Fox has less work to do in any case, as it programs seven fewer hours a week than ABC, NBC, and CBS. Thursday's unveiling of the Fox plans for 2008-09 adheres to the tradition, as the network is saving its most buzzed-about new show till the winter.

That series would be the latest from Joss Whedon's imagination, Dollhouse, about an illegal organization that employs people to carry out various missions, switching out their memories and personalities in order to make their jobs easier. Eliza Dushku, a supporting character in Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, plays a Dollhouse operative who is beginning to develop self-awareness. Whedon didn't have particularly good luck with his previous project for Fox, Firefly, so it's interesting to see him heading back to a network that can sometimes be maddeningly impatient with potential cult hits.

Three other shows are set for winter premieres. The Cleveland Show will spin off the Family Guy character as he links up with the woman that he had thought would be his one true love when they were in high school. Cleveland has never seemed like the sort of character who could front his own series, but this one will no doubt rise and fall based on the amount of Family Guy-style wackiness it packs in. One of Cleveland's new neighbors will be a family of bears -- see, wackiness like that. Another newbie for the Sunday animation block is Sit Down, Shut Up, which covers the eccentric lives of high school teachers in a small town. Mitch Hurwitz of Arrested Development fame is behind this one, fitting since his old series was a live action surrealist cartoon in many ways.

Secret Millionaire will follow wealthy individuals who immerse themselves in poor neighborhoods and try to get by however they can. In the course of their new lives, the secret millionaires will come into contact with various people, and at the end of their undercover assignments, they will reveal themselves and award a cash prize to someone they feel is deserving. This certainly sounds like Fox turning over a different leaf, especially since the show will air right after one of the least heartwarming shows on television, Hell's Kitchen, which has apparently been promoted from summer permanently.

Yes, Fox does have a couple of new series for fall. The latest project from J.J. Abrams, Fringe, concerns an investigation into the deaths of all the people aboard an international flight which lands in Boston. Like any Abrams show (Lost, Alias), this event turns out to be merely the beginning of a wider conspiracy. The mostly unknown Anna Torv stars, although more familiar faces such as Joshua Jackson and Blair Brown (Molly Dodd!) turn up as key supporting players. The one new sitcom on the Fox slate is Do Not Disturb, about the zany staff of an upscale New York hotel. The not-very-zany Jerry O'Connell will star, taking another stab at sitcoms after Carpoolers ran out of gas.

Major schedule changes include the moves of Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? and Don't Forget the Lyrics to Fridays, making Fox the second network (after ABC) to turn this into an all-unscripted night. Bones, on Mondays for the last few months, will return to its Wednesday slot next fall and then head to Fridays when American Idol butts in beginning in January. The Moment of Truth will air on Thursdays at 8 and should instantly become the most competitive program Fox has ever had there, although it remains to be seen if the shock value of the series will wear off, or if audiences will in time be made uneasy by it. And as of now, Fox is only devoting a half hour to the American Idol results show, listing the 9:30-10 slot as belonging to an as yet undetermined comedy. Prior to this season, the results typically went for a half hour, expanding only when Fox needed a ratings jolt or when they had a particularly strong guest. The expansion to an hour every week has been a mortifying disaster.

24 will be back in January after a 20-month absence that's no doubt going to seem longer by the time next winter rolls in. If the scripts are better this time around, all will be forgiven. Fox will air a 24 movie (not the theatrical release we've been hearing about for years) on November 23, which will cover some of the ground between the end of last season and the start of the seventh season, and remind people that Jack Bauer and his friends (those who aren't dead yet) still exist.

The shows that Fox chose not to renew are an obscure lot; only Back to You aired even a full season's worth of episodes. The sitcom got decent notices, but while Kelsey Grammer, Patricia Heaton, and Fred Willard have awesome comedic resumes, all three are well outside the typical Fox demographic. As for the remaining series that were not renewed -- Unhitched, Canterbury's Law, New Amsterdam (so much for being immortal), The Return of Jezebel James -- they will only be missed by the people who worked on them.

Fox usually gets an early start on the fall in order to give their shows a little momentum before the frequent baseball interruptions of October, and this year the kickoff date is August 25, when Prison Break airs its two-hour season premiere (Fringe debuts a night later). The full Fox schedule, in two parts:

Monday (fall): Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Prison Break.

Monday (winter): Dollhouse and 24.

Tuesday (fall): House and Fringe.

Tuesday (winter): American Idol and Fringe.

Wednesday (fall): Bones, 'Til Death, Do Not Disturb.

Wednesday (winter): House, American Idol, an unknown comedy.

Thursday (fall): The Moment of Truth, Kitchen Nightmares.

Thursday (winter): Hell's Kitchen and Secret Millionaire.

Friday (fall): Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? and Don't Forget the Lyrics.

Friday (winter): Bones, 'Til Death, Do Not Disturb: the entire Wednesday fall lineup moves as a unit.

Saturday: Cops (two half hour episodes), America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back. I probably didn't have to tell you this, did I?

Sunday (fall): At 7 The OT, the Fox NFL wrap-up show, which is of variable length depending on how long the games run. Then starting at 8, the animated quartet of The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Family Guy, and American Dad.

Sunday (winter): comedy reruns from 7 to 8, followed by The Simpsons; Sit Down, Shut Up; Family Guy; and The Cleveland Show. The two new animated shows are penciled in as spring entries.

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