Shoots, da kine “Rescue HI-Surf” is one lucky TV show, brah. Fox just gave it the cherry timeslot after Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9, 2025. That’s a big vote of confidence for the freshman drama, which is set to premiere this fall on Monday nights at 9 p.m. ET, after “9-1-1: Lone Star.”
Although the impact of the Super Bowl lead-out has varied over the years, it proved to be a huge boon this year to CBS, which launched “Tracker” after Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11 and watched that drama turn into a big hit. The last time Fox aired the Super Bowl, in 2023, it ran an episode of its hit food competition series “Next Level Chef.” And in 2020, Fox aired an episode of another unscripted program, “The Masked Singer.”
Fox last ran a scripted program behind the Super Bowl in 2017, when the network launched the series premiere of “24: Legacy,” which only ultimately lasted a season.
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Fox is bullish on “Rescue: HI-Surf,” which comes from prolific executive producer/director John Wells (“Shameless,” “The West Wing,” “ER”) and executive producer/writer Matt Kester, who previously worked with Wells on “Animal Kingdom.”
“We believe this show has real franchise potential,” Fox TV Network prexy Michael Thorn said on Monday.
Added Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade: “We’ve done a huge amount of research into what we feel is going to work best for after the Super Bowl. We find that returning IP does better. It kind of makes it more concrete, in firms up the audience. And so we really felt like if we could eventize essentially what is the premiere of the back end of ‘Rescue,’ we could have a really exciting night of television.”
The Hawai’i-set lifeguard drama “follows the personal and professional lives of the heavy-water lifeguards who patrol and protect the North Shore of O’ahu—the most famous and dangerous stretch of coastline in the world. Each episode will feature these dedicated, heroic, and adrenaline-seeking first-responders saving lives in the difficult and often life-threatening conditions of Hawaii’s Seven Mile Miracle.”
Series stars include Robbie Magasiva (“Wentworth”), Arielle Kebbel (“The Vampire Diaries”), Adam Demos (“Sex / Life”), Kekoa Kekumano (“The White Lotus”), Alex Aiono (“Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin”) and Zoe Cipres (“Roswell, New Mexico”). Sea Shimooka (“3 Body Problem”), Shawn Hatosy (“Animal Kingdom”) and Ian Anthony Dale (“The Resident”) recur.
Warner Bros. Television and Fox Entertainment Studios are behind the show, which was created by Kester, who exec produces and co-showruns with Wells and Daniele Nathanson. Wells is directing the first two episodes, while Kester wrote the first episode. Erin Jontow of John Wells Productions is also an executive producer. Hana hou.
Super Bowl LIX is set to take place at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. “Rescue HI-Surf” post-Super Bowl scheduling was announced Monday as part of Fox’s 2024-2025 schedule announcement.
