Fox To Launch Late Night Animation Block

Fox is teaming with veterans of Adult Swim to launch a late night animation block to go head-to-head with Saturday NIght Live. The network announced the block at the Television Critics Association winter press tour. The block is scheduled to launch in Jan. 2013.

“It’s something that we’ve been working on for a while,” Fox president of entertainment Kevin Reilly said at the start of his executive session. “We have real estate on our schedule in Saturday night late night that we’ve not been programming in quite a few seasons.”

The new unit overseeing the development and production of the alternative animated series will be run by former Adult Swim headNick Weidenfeld, who serves as EP of Children’s Hospital andThe Boondocks. Hend Baghdady will also serve as executive in charge of production.