Fox Populi: They're Cutting Ad Time Just for You, Little Guy

Mondays at 8 is "Dollhouse," produced by Whedon of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Firefly" fame. It's about a "highly illegal" underground group of "Actives" whose personalities are wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas to carry out a variety of missions, Fox said.

Sounds like the old "Mission: Impossible" TV series, you say? But it's not! we say.

The Actives, you see, don't just pretend to be new people -- they become new people and are never aware they are "actually pawns in someone else's game," Fox explains.

"Mission Impossible: The Impossibly Stupid" stars "Buffy" alum Eliza Dushku.

It was unclear whether these Actives volunteered or were duped into playing along. But anyway, the people behind the whole Dollhouse thing -- the "Engagements" -- are apparently interested only in the very hot; the rest of us needn't worry about being pressed into service. The Engagements cater to the wealthy, powerful and connected because they did not get the Fox "We're the Populist Network" memo.

Anyway, the Actives live in this totally cool, totally secret facility called the Dollhouse, where they work out a lot and sleep in little coffins under the floor, for reasons I'm sure will be explained early on. They have names like Echo and Victor and Sierra.

"Dollhouse" will be followed by the return of "24," except we will have already seen that "24" stand-alone flick, details of which Liguori said he was sworn to keep secret, except to say it will air on Sunday, Nov. 23.

"Fringe" will move to Tuesdays at 9 in the first quarter, following "American Idol" -- the cushiest time slot in all of TV-dom.

"House" will move to Wednesdays at 8, followed by that half-hour "Idol" results show, hahahahaha.

Ahem, sorry, I just can't write that with a straight face.

It will be followed by "TBA Comedy," Fox said, which gives you an idea how serious the network is about keeping the "Idol" results show down to half an hour.

On Thursdays in the first quarter, Fox will kick things off with "Hell's Kitchen" and then somehow segue into "Secret Millionaire." The network describes it "a heartwarming new reality series" in which each week a different millionaire goes undercover to some of America's most impoverished areas, pretending to be poor and look for a job and a place to live, all the while searching for that perfect "everyday hero" to whom they can cut a personal check, so as to feel better about their sprawling mansions, their lavish lifestyles, their private planes, blah, blah, blah.

On the final day, the Secret Millionaires meet with the chosen recipients and reveal their true identities and intention: to give them at least $100,000 -- a.k.a. lunch money -- from their own stash. The network says "Secret Millionaire" will "engage viewers in important social issues, extol the virtues of volunteerism and change the lives of disadvantaged people -- and the philanthropists who helped them -- in unexpected ways."

Reilly said it was so heartwarming he had to check to see if it really came from Fox reality-series guru Mike Darnell, who most recently gave us skankola series "Moment of Truth."

"Bones," "'Til Death" and "Do Not Disturb" move to Friday nights -- sure they do. Saturday remains the same.

And Sunday becomes a consomme of returning and new animated comedies, starting with the ever-popular "Comedy Encores," followed by the irreverent "Comedy Encores," "The Simpsons" and "King of the Hill," which will be replaced in the spring by new comedy "Sit Down, Shut Up." That show, from Mitchell Hurwitz of "Arrested Development" fame, is about a dysfunctional group of high school teachers in a small Northeastern fishing town.

At 9 p.m. it's "Family Guy," followed by "American Dad," which will be replaced in the spring by a "Family Guy" spinoff, "The Cleveland Show."

In that show, Cleveland Brown marries his old high school girlfriend Donna and he and Cleveland Jr. move to Stoolbend, Va., to join Donna, her flirtatious daughter and 5-year-old son "who loves the ladies." Neighbors include a loudmouth redneck couple, a British family from the Victorian era, and a family of bears.