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FOX Hires 'Nanny' For Monday

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

08:25 AM PT

Just in case you didn't notice, FOX's "Trading Spouses" had its season finale a couple weeks back, leaving the network with a Monday night hole leading into "24." Fortunately for FOX, "American Idol" is ably filling that slot for the near future, but starting on March 14, FOX will transplant one of its few reality hits from the fall into that Monday night slot (except for on nights when "Idol" specials can be manufactured at the last minute).

"Nanny 911," which is like ABC's "Supernanny" except with four revolving versatile domestics instead of one, will grab the 8 p.m. time period on Mondays and, with a combination of tough love and positive reinforcement, teach it to behave.

Airing mostly on Wednesday nights after its November premiere, "Nanny 911" averaged 8.2 million viewers for its first 9 episodes, almost identical to the figures delivered by "Trading Spouses" in its Monday showings. While hardly a fair comparison, this past Monday's (Feb. 21) episode of "Idol" drew 23.2 million viewers.

In other FOX programming notes, the network has bumped "The Bernie Mac Show" from its 8 p.m. ET time slot on Friday, March 4 for the 30-minute commercial "'Robots:' The Magic, The Music and The Comedy." Viewers may be shocked to discover that the new movie from the creators of "Ice Age" is being released by 20th Century Fox. Expect the special to be plug-tastic.