Fox yanks 'Utopia' from Tuesdays

Fox is dumping half of Utopia from its schedule.

The idealistic-sounding series with the hellish ratings is being yanked from Tuesday nights. From now on, Utopia will only air on Fridays. The move comes just hours after we predicted this very move in EW‘s first canceled shows post. While Utopia is not canceled, the decision marks a major demotion for the series.

Instead, Fox is going to launch the second season of Masterchef Junior in the Tuesday at 8 p.m. slot. starting Nov. 4. Next week, Fox will encore its Family Guy/Simpsons crossover episode in the time period, then have animated repeats the following week. Then Fox’s World Series coverage will take over the night until the premiere of Masterchef Junior, which was originally intended for Friday night.

Fox had a very ambitious plan for Utopia, which was originally announced as a yearlong show. Though the series was originally intended to eventually segue to one night a week, that night was supposed to be the higher-profile Tuesday nights after running for six weeks on the air. Utopia has struggled hugely in the ratings. The reality experiment where 13 “pioneers” build a new society had only 2 million viewers Tuesday night and a 0.8 rating among adults 18-49, which wasn’t helpful for Fox’s 9 p.m. comedy block of New Girl and The Mindy Project.