SIZZLING SUMMER BEGINS THIS MAY ON FOX

“SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE” LAUNCHES NEXT SEARCH FOR AMERICA’S FAVORITE DANCER THURSDAY, MAY 26

AMERICA’S AMATEUR COOKS COMPETE TO BE THE NEXT “MASTERCHEF” BEGINNING MONDAY, JUNE 6

GORDON RAMSAY SERVES UP NINTH COURSE OF “HELL’S KITCHEN” STARTING TUESDAY, JULY 19

FOX sizzles this summer with the return of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, HELL’S KITCHEN and MASTERCHEF.

Back for an eighth season this summer, SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE kicks off with a two-hour premiere Thursday, May 26 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT). Hosted by Cat Deeley, the hit dance competition series will inspire and amaze viewers as dancers skilled in styles ranging from hip-hop to ballroom compete to be named America’s Favorite Dancer. This season’s auditions feature resident judges Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy, as well as guest judges Robin Antin, Lil C, Tyce Diorio, Toni Redpath and Jason Gilkison. Once the auditions conclude, weekly two-hour performance shows will air Wednesdays (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT), and weekly results shows will air Thursdays (8:00-9:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed), followed by encore episodes of GLEE (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT).

World-renowned chef Gordon Ramsay, restaurateur Joe Bastianich and chef Graham Elliot return to challenge a new batch of hopefuls on the second season of hit culinary competition series MASTERCHEF beginning Monday, June 6 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT). America’s best amateur cooks from all walks of life will compete two nights a week for the coveted white apron Mondays (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) and Tuesdays (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT).

Chef Ramsay takes over Tuesdays when HELL’S KITCHEN starts cooking July 19 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) following all-new episodes of MASTERCHEF. HELL’S KITCHEN puts aspiring restaurateurs through an intense culinary academy as Ramsay seeks out the one chef who possesses the right combination of ingredients to win the life-changing grand prize.

Starting June 3, FOX Fridays lead with encores of BONES (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) featuring the investigative work of fearless forensic duo Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz), followed by encores of LIE TO ME (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) starring Tim Roth as deception expert Cal Lightman.

The most arresting night of television airs Saturdays with a mixture of all-new and encore episodes of COPS (8:00-8:30 and 8:30-9:00 PM ET/PT) followed by all-new episodes of AMERICA’S MOST WANTED (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) until its season finale on June 18. Encores of compelling new police drama THE CHICAGO CODE begin Saturday, June 25 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT).

Sundays feature everyone’s favorite animated families with encores all summer long of THE SIMPSONS, THE CLEVELAND SHOW, FAMILY GUY, AMERICAN DAD and newcomer BOB’S BURGERS (7:00-10:00 PM ET/PT).

RECAP – FOX 2011 SUMMER SCHEDULE

(All times ET/PT except as noted)

MONDAY

Mondays, beginning June 6:

8:00-9:00 PM MASTERCHEF (Season Premiere, Part 1)

9:00-10:00 PM HOUSE (Encores)

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TUESDAY

Tuesdays, beginning June 7:

8:00-9:00 PM MASTERCHEF (Season Premiere, Part 2)

9:00-9:30 PM RAISING HOPE (Encores)

9:30-10:00 PM TRAFFIC LIGHT (Encores)

Tuesday, July 12:

8:00-11:00 PM ET MLB ALL-STAR GAME 2011 (FOX Sports Special)

Tuesdays, beginning July 19:

8:00-9:00 PM MASTERCHEF

9:00-10:00 PM HELL’S KITCHEN (Season Premiere)

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WEDNESDAY

Wednesdays, beginning June 1:

8:00-10:00 PM SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE (Season Premiere, Part 2)

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THURSDAY

Thursday, May 26:

8:00-10:00 PM SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE (Season Premiere, Part 1)

Thursdays, beginning June 2:

8:00-9:00 PM SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE (Time Period Premiere)

9:00-10:00 PM GLEE (Encores)

FRIDAY

Fridays, beginning June 3:

8:00-9:00 PM BONES (Encores)

9:00-10:00 PM LIE TO ME (Encores)

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SATURDAY

Saturday, June 18:

8:00-8:30 PM COPS (Season Finale)

8:30-9:00 PM COPS

9:00-10:00 PM AMERICA’S MOST WANTED (Season Finale)

Saturdays, beginning June 25:

8:00-8:30 PM COPS (Encores)

8:30-9:00 PM COPS (Encores)

9:00-10:00 PM THE CHICAGO CODE (Time Period Premiere) (Encores)

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SUNDAY

Sundays, beginning June 5:

7:00-10:00 PM ANIMATION DOMINATION (Encores)

Thanks to extremely competitive time slots, being moved around the schedule, and long hiatuses, Lie to Me has often struggled with viewer numbers since it first premiered back in January of 2009. Still, it’s managed to build a strong, loyal audience that seems to follow it regardless of where it’s at. In fact, recently it showed signs of improvement: In its final two episodes of the season, Lie to Me had some strong numbers, especially when compared to previous months. (Episode 3×12 was the most watched in over a year.) Despite that, it’s likely we won’t hear about Lie to Me’s fate until May. In the meantime…

What Can You Do?
1) Obvious, but true: let Fox know how much you love the show – E-mail scheduling and marketing at askfox@fox.com

2) Sign and RT petitions on social networking sites like Twitter. We’ve started two:
http://act.ly/349K
http://twitition.com/5eaem/

3) There are a couple of fan campaigns going on now. A site to check out, that seems to have info on these:
Keep Lie to Me On

Have another link to share? Leave it in the comments below.

Let your voice be heard, guys… in whatever way you can.

In the Fox drama, the Lightman Group specializes in interpreting microexpressions and body language, and leader Cal Lightman (Roth) is an expert at manipulating his own body’s language to fluster and confuse people into inadvertently revealing their true motives. Executive producers Alexander Cary and David Graziano explain that Roth deliberately created Lightman’s odd food mannerisms as part of his character’s work strategy.

“It really is a Tim character choice,” Cary tells TVGuide.com. “You look at the type of the scene and then you look at the type of food that’s going to most subvert the gravity of that scene. For example, in Episode 301 when Cal’s in the bar as a prisoner of two bank robbers and he bites into a pickle. Yeah, that’s Tim’s choices. That’s what he chooses to kind of provoke them. Lightman is a character who likes to put people off their game. Eating and talking through a mouthful of potato chips or three hot dogs is what he does to repulse people to a certain extent.” Graziano adds. “He’s a provocateur.”

So far, Lie to Me viewers have responded to Lightman — repulsive quirks and all — positively. The series won a People’s Choice Award for Favorite TV Crime Drama, while Roth was named Favorite TV Crime Fighter. “Sometimes the fans ask for us to have him stop talking with his mouth full and some people like it,” Cary says. “You know it’s just one of those things we have to be a little judicious with otherwise it become a little bit cartoonish.”

In fact, Roth has been pulling back on his performance, creating a sort of Lightman Lite. “You may have noticed in the second half of this season Tim, as he would say, de-quirked his performance of Lightman a little bit,” Cary says. “There wasn’t quite as many sort of facial tics and sort of body language tics. He played it a little straighter. He played it a little quieter which is a conscious choice of his.”

Fans also may have noticed that Lightman’s colleague, Dr. Gillian Foster (Kelli Williams), has her own signature eating habit, a weakness for sugary junk foods, that hasn’t gotten much play recently, but is still part of the character.

“I think we did a scene to refer to that if I’m not mistaken … but we took it out,” Cary says. “We had to take it for time actually. It’s something that we’re aware of. Kelli Williams actually quite likes that character trait. We may use it. We may not. It doesn’t really go anywhere at the moment.”

Lightman’s eating habits, however, are an ongoing part of the show, and Roth comes in to work ready to plan the next gastronomic gambit. “The show’s about behavior and we have an actor who loves to see the character misbehave,” Cary says. “That’s what it is. We all like to misbehave. That’s what the show is about.”

And make no mistake: Roth makes food selections based on their potential to draw laughs. “He likes pickles because they make a funny noise when you bite them,” Cary says. Graziano adds: “Some foods are funnier than others. Pickles are hilarious.”

Truthfully, the episode has nothing to do with Facebook, but you can’t help but notice the parallels between it and the Oscar-nominated film, The Social Network, which explores the complicated personal and legal entanglements behind the founding of the most popular website on the Internet. In Lie to Me’s tale, Nikita’s Ashton Holmes plays Zach Morstein, the wunderkind co-creator of a popular dating application who Dr. Lightman (Tim Roth) fingers as the lead suspect in the murder of Zach’s best friend and company co-founder.

Executive producers Alexander Cary and David Graziano happily wear their influences. “We didn’t want to shy away from it as a milieu because there was a movie that took place in that arena,” Graziano tells TVGuide.com, noting that the original story was based in small-town politics, not technology. “It is really hard on television to establish the character of a small town. At its heart, this episode always was about three close friends and how they become divided. So, rather than it be small town where this happens between three local politicians, we just made them friends with a corporation.”

“Obviously we were aware of [The Social Network], but it didn’t really inspire us or inform us,” Cary adds. “You draw your inspirations from these places but then, once you’ve come out of the gate, you go with it in your own way. We just thought it was a fun way to do this story. It was a fun type of character to go against Lightman. It’s sort of old-school against new-school.”

Indeed, Graziano says the episode is actually more of an homage to Peter Falk’s Columbo. “We liked the way he is a working-class protagonist who goes up against these very powerful, very rich antagonists and through the course of an episode, takes them down at the knee,” Graziano says. “Lightman is sort of cut from the same cloth. The important things about these episodes is that you always need a very clear and strong obstacle to the truth. The people that are the strongest obstacles just wind up being the people with the most to lose and the people who are the smartest and most powerful.”

It just so happens that the murder victim is a former patient of Dr Gillian Foster (Kelli Williams), which raises the stakes for Lightman & Co. In fact, when Graziano and Cary learned that the episode would double as the show’s season finale (Fox opted not to order the back nine episodes to make room for new midseason shows), they decided to more fully explore Foster and Lightman’s “relationship status.”

“We wanted to make a statement about what’s at the nucleus of their friendship, which is a deep love and a respect,” Graziano says. “And one of the things Lightman does for her — he’s her protector.”

“We wanted to really cement the relationship between Lightman and Foster,” Cary says. “We wanted to really do a love story in a very indirect way between Lightman and Foster with a sort of horrible crime that affects Foster, and therefore Lightman, personally. And I think what we wanted also to do was imbue Lightman and Foster and some of the other characters with a sense of hope for the future.”

But what is the show’s future? While Fox execs are unlikely to rule on Lie to Me’s future prospects until May, Cary remains very confident. “They have been incredibly supportive to us and encouraging, and they have made it absolutely clear that we should not pack our bags,” he says. “We’re feeling really good and they’re looking after us and keeping us busy. I think this is just the nature of the business. They make people like us fight for our shows and it’s fair enough. To fight for our show is no bad thing, and to allow other shows to have a crack at it is no bad thing for us or the business.”

And Graziano notes that the final moments of the finale will leave everyone wanting to see what comes next. “We’ve made some promises that we plan to achieve in Season 4,” he says. “Those aren’t just things that we’re planting in the episodes to string the fans along, but where we want to see the show go.”

Lie to Me’s Season 3 finale airs Monday at 9/8c on Fox. Do you want to see another season of the show?

Fringe and Lie to Me are not doomed. That was the big takeaway from the Fox exec session today at the TCA Press Tour.

Regarding Lie to Me, network president Kevin Reilly called the decision not to order additional episodes this season “a needs thing”, adding, “We’ve got a lot of midseason shows that we’re rolling out and we just have to get a little deeper into the spring and size everything up [before discussing another season]… We’d like to believe there’s [a future] for Lie to Me. It delivers a very loyal audience wherever we put it.”

Fans can expect a dose of dark romance in the second episode. The story centers on George Parker (Mad Men’s Sam Page), a charming yet shady ladies’ man who is about to become engaged to a wealthy divorcée. “He’s almost too good to be true,” says Cary. Spoiler alert: There’s nothing “almost” about it, and Lightman is tasked with uncovering the skeletons in the lothario’s closet.

A recent decision by Fox, meanwhile, has fans wondering if their beloved show is headed for the boneyard. Early in December, the network declined to order any further episodes to make room for the upcoming cop drama The Chicago Code. But Cary assures viewers his series is still vital and chalks the issue up to tricky scheduling. “They know what this series is and what it can do for them. But they’re trying to find out what some other products can do, too. They want to see how other shows perform, then schedule accordingly,” he says. “But I’m fairly confident that we’ll be very much in that plan for the fall.” No lie.

Lie to Me airs Monday at 8/7c and 9/8c on Fox.

While not a particularly strong performer ratings-wise, Lie to Me has been pretty consistent. Up against stiff competition, multiple schedule moves, a quick return, and other variables, Lie to Me has still managed to keep a pretty solid fan base. Its most recent airing actually saw an increase of almost 30% from the previous week.

More info to come…