FOX gives ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ full season order and post-Super Bowl slot

FOX has given “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” a full season order – and slotted it to air with “New Girl” after the Super Bowl in February.

The cop comedy, from the “Parks and Recreation” team of Mike Schur and Dan Goor, and starring Andy Samberg, Andre Braugher and Terry Crews, has been one of the fall’s better-reviewed comedies, but it’s struggled in the ratings opposite “NCIS” and “Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD,” and at this point, its numbers have become largely indistinguishable from its “Dads” lead-in.

FOX giving it the back nine order – and making it part of Super Bowl night – is a show of faith on behalf of a promising new show dealing with tough competition and an incompatible lead-in. The post-Super Bowl timeslot isn’t a huge boost anymore – and “Brooklyn” will be airing after the game, the post-game coverage and a “New Girl” episode, so possibly not until after primetime is over – but at the very least it will give FOX a reason to heavily promote the show again at midseason.

I think “Brooklyn” still has some creative fine-tuning to do when it comes to Samberg’s character – he needs to seem less like a 12-year-old with a badge, and/or sometimes get to be right in arguments with Braugher’s disapproving captain – but it’s been showing clear growth and is one of the few new series I’ve stuck with on any network. With its recent ratings, I’d been worried FOX was ready to give up on it; the back nine, and the Super Bowl spot (as opposed to, say, giving it to one of the network’s midseason comedies), are very reassuring.

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