TV Column: Fox picks fall trifecta: Britney Spears, Demi Lovato and Mindy Kaling

NEW YORK — Fox will plant four comedies on Tuesday’s schedule, including one originally developed by NBC for its star Mindy Kaling.

Her new show, “The Mindy Project,” will immediately follow “New Girl” — Fox’s most promising launch from last fall.

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Pulitzer Prize winner, Peabody recipient, Medal of Freedom honoree -- Lisa de Moraes is none of these, but she is an authority on the bad direction, over-acting, and muddled plot lines being played out in the TV industry's executive suites.

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Making the announcement to advertisers Monday afternoon at Manhattan’s Beacon Theater, Fox programming chief Kevin Reilly seemed actually stunned to have found another actual chick who can actually write a comedy series for TV (Liz Meriwether is the show runner of “New Girl”). He patronizingly called Kaling a member of the “fempire.”

That Kevin Reilly — once he gets one foot on the ground, he’s really quite a knucklehead.

Elsewhere, pop train-wrecks Britney Spears and Demi Lovato have joined Simon Cowell’s singing competition, “The X Factor,” where they will mentor young, aspiring pop stars — proving once and for all that network suits have a sense of humor.

“We delivered! Rumors are one thing, delivering is something else,” a puffy Cowell simpered as he stood up onstage next to BritBrit and Lovato during Fox’s dog-and-pony show.

“We started off well last year, but this year we’re going to seriously kick butt with the addition of these guys,” Cowell said complacently.

“I’m so excited about this whole experience,” BritBrit gushed. “This is going to be so much fun and so different from anything I’ve ever done and I’m ready to find the true star!”

“I’m totally stoked to be here,” Lovato added.

As you can see, they are a huge improvement.

“The Rolls-Royce of Television, right here!” raved L.A. Reid — “X Factor’s” only surviving non-Simon mentor — as he pointed at Lovato and BritBrit.

In the fall, “X Factor” returns to Wednesday and Thursday nights at 8.

The network will protect its investment in the flailing “Glee” by moving it to the safe zone — a.k.a. after the network’s singing-competition shows on Thursdays. “Glee” will follow “The X Factor” in the fall and “American Idol” in the spring.

In other schedule changes, Kiefer Sutherland’s number-crunching thriller “Touch” is moved to Fridays to join “Fringe’s” final season. And Jordana Spiro’s “Mob Doctor” will replace Hugh Laurie’s “angry doctor” drama “House” on Monday nights.

At midseason, Fox will launch on Mondays a new drama called “The Following,” in which Kevin Bacon plays an FBI guy chasing a serial-killing cult that’s headed by James Purefoy. Fifteen episodes will run without interruption and without reruns — a la “24.”

“The audience has consistently asked us, ‘Where is the next ‘24’?’ We think we found it!” Reilly enthused.

Landing Kevin Bacon for the role, Reilly said, is “the casting coup of the year.” That’s because Reilly hadn’t met the capuchin monkey named Crystal, who stars as Dr. Zaius in NBC’s new comedy “Animal Practice” — yes, seriously — and who totally stole the show, and the hearts of jaded Madison Avenue execs, at NBC’s new-schedule unveiling Monday morning.

Never bet against a TV show with a cute monkey.

The Fox weekend

And, as promised, Fox’s “Cops” is toast in the fall, and Saturday is the new “Fox Sports Saturday.”