Everyone hates summer. We’re forced out of our homes by reruns on TV, only to be assaulted by bright sunlight, abrasively green grass, and painfully hot sand. Thankfully, there’s an end in sight to the awful onslaught of summer, as evidenced by FOX’s fall schedule. Here is the darkness at the end of the painfully bright tunnel:

Monday: “Terra Nova,” the impressively ambitious show with dinosaurs or something at 8 PM, followed by “House” at 9 PM.

Tuesday: Some show called”Glee” at 8 PM, followed by the new “The New Girl” with Zooey Deschanel at 9, then “Raising Hope” at 9:30.

Wednesday: “The X-Factor,” which is different from “American Idol” in dozens of ways, starts at 8 PM. Then it’s “I Hate My Teenage Daughter” with Jamie Pressly at 9:30. That’s right, “The X-Factor” is on for an hour and a half.

Thursday: The evening starts at 8 PM with the results show of “The X-Factor,” which mercifully is only an hour long. Then after that it’s “Bones” at 9.

Friday: “Kitchen Nightmares” at 8 PM followed by”Fringe” at 9. That’s why it’s the most popular TV night of the week!

Saturday: “Cops” is inexplicably still on the air at 8 PM, followed by reruns and “occasional” “America’s Most Wanted” after that at 9.

Sunday: It’s Sunday night animation, starting whenever all that football stuff is over -”The Cleveland Show,”"The Simpsons,” a new show from Jonah Hill called “Allen Gregory,”"Family Guy,” and “American Dad.”

Well, there you have it. Keep this in mind as you struggle to make it through another punishing summer. And remember, you can always watch reruns. (The Hollywood Reporter)

- The new J. J. Abrams series “Alcatraz” has officially been greenlit, because Fox needs another beloved, expensive, poorly-rated mystery drama from Abrams right away. The story follows a team of investigators trying to figure out why 1960s prisoners are re-appearing in Alcatraz. Hint: Sideways Universes.

- Also picked up is a “Bones” spin-off called “Finder.” The series stars Geoff Stults as a military-trained “finder” of missing items and persons in Florida. Hint: “Lost and Found” boxes.

- “Human Target” was targeted for cancellation, and subsequently got hit with the dreaded cancellation missile.

- “Breaking In” did just that with strong initial ratings, but the Christian Slater comedy will not make it to season 2.

- “I Hate My Teenage Daughter” is apparently liked, not hated, by Fox executives. They picked up the new Jaime Pressly comedy series.

- “The Chicago Code” has been decoded. It reads: “cancelled.”

- “Traffic Light” got the dreaded red “cancellation” light, not the green one.

- Zooey Deschanel will star in “The New Girl,” a single camera comedy about a teacher who gets dumped. Like all girls who get dumped in movies and TV shows, Deschanel’s quirky teacher character will have to navigate the wacky world… of dating. She’ll do so with her three new dude roommates: “the cynic, the player and the man-child.” Setting my TiVO to “destroy.”

- As I reported earlier, the “House” party continues with season 8.

“‘Bones’ is creatively fresh, it’s a rock-solid player every time it airs and this season it has helped us win on Thursday nights for the first time in our history. Hart Hanson and the fantastic cast and crew, as well as the millions of loyal ‘Bones’ fans, make this show really special, and I’m excited to have it on our air for another stellar season.”

So, there you have it, fans of the FOX procedural “Bones.” Enjoy the rest of your day. (HitFix)

What else do we know about “The Finder”? The character is based on “The Locator” series of books from Richard Greener. They seem to be a very literal bunch producing these shows. The finder is a locator. Got it. His partner will be played by Michael Clarke Duncan, wh I am obligated to tell you is an Oscar nominee for his work in The Green Mile.

It seems more than a little goofy that the show is being considered a spinoff when it’s pretty clear that the producers are shoehorning this character into the final three episodes of this season solely for the purpose of building an audience for the new show’s premiere. It should be more accurately be described as a “Bones”-incubated show, rather than a spinoff. But that’s wordy.

“Tune in to Fox this for “The Finder.” If you’re a fan of “Bones,” then you’ll fall in love with the new show from the people tangentially associated with it! Tuesdays this fall, after all-new episodes of “Are You Smarter Than a Haitian?”(Deadline)

I know from previous writing experience that “Bones” fans hate spoilers, yet they love to read about “Bones.” I respect that. I don’t want to ruin anything for you, but I know you want to know about the season premiere, so I’ll be as vague as possible and just try to tell you what’s good so you can look forward to it.

Seeing some different settings in the opening of the show is cool. Fans probably know where the characters have gone off to, but just in case I’ll leave that up to the imagination. Wherever they are, it adds a little epic feel, even if it was shot locally. It adds some action and a chance for characters to bring their unique qualities to a different world. The ladies get a chance to be sexy too.

More after the jump…

It’s still a different sort of “Bones” episode. There’s a case but it’s more about the team. The team is in a different place now and not everyone agrees on where they should be. That creates some good drama and challenges characters to think about their decisions. It’s very equal to everyone on the team so any storyline you’re following gets attention. There’s some stuff you’re really going to like. It goes there, but I won’t spoil who goes there or for where there is.

The dialogue is sharp as ever. The characters don’t avoid the issues left dangling before, and their conversations are whimsical and ironic. I’m always glad when someone takes a cliché literally and thus points out that the clichés we use in common speech are actually not descriptive at all. Thanks for improving the language skills of America, “Bones.” (I mean that seriously. I don’t like the expression “serious as a heart attack” so they should absolutely have intelligent characters point out its absurdity.)

The case itself could be especially upsetting. I mean, if you’ve been watching different carcasses every week for five years, I still think the body on this slab would be more disturbing. The details of it are fascinating. The team is back in top form and they quickly disprove assumptions that professionals made. This mystery kept me guessing, with two parallel questions both of which are surprising. Hour long shows tend to keep investigations simple, but “Bones” can still misdirect and pay it off.

I’d love to talk about more specifics, but if you watch “Bones” you probably already know the general level of quality. This is just to assure you that the season premiere delivers the goods and goes where you’d want it to. I even liked the staging of scenes on the backlot, just little details that make it feel more populated. We’ll talk more after Thursday night.