RAISING HOPE: Garret Dillahunt on Moving to Fridays and Getting a New Showrunner

RAISING HOPE bounced around a bit as it finished its third season (the final two episodes of the year aired on a Thursday), but when it returns for the upcoming season, it’s currently scheduled to make the move to Friday nights (after BONES).

“I even get tweets from people far from Hollywood that think ‘oh, you’re in the death slot,'” RAISING HOPE star Garret Dillahunt (Burt) acknowledged of the shift. “That’s just not true anymore. There are some hits on Friday nights: BLUE BLOODS and GRIMM did very well. A lot of people don’t know what night a show is on anymore, the way people watch TV. It could be great for us. We could end up being the stars of the night and last another three years. If we hold our audience, we’re going to be heroes. It really didn’t affect me one way or the other. And I suppose it would be a waste of energy if it did, because it’s happening. If something at Tuesday [tanks], or if it happens on another night, I have no doubt they’re going to put us right back in there. We seem to be that show for them.”

“It’s such a different landscape…it’s not the ’90s,” he added. “FRIENDS is probably never going to happen again; no one’s going to get that kind of audience. In a way it’s freeing. You can make a more distinctive show and not have to try and please so many people, which I think is a disastrous effort anyway. But in a sense, it’s hard to get people to catch on enough to stay on. You want it to stay on. We’re about to shoot our fourth season; that’s unheard of, these days.”

And while the comedy might have made it to its fourth season, it will be sans the show’s creator, Greg Garcia, who has moved on to the new series, THE MILLERS.

“We all certainly know our characters now,” Dillahunt said. “Greg will be missed, that’s for sure…but Mike [Mariano]’s been with Greg for over two or three series, so he certainly knows what’s going on. He’s directed many episodes of RAISING HOPE. I don’t expect us to fix what isn’t broken.”

But what comes next for the Chances? Dillahunt indicated he was game for anything.

“I’ve been in a spitting contest with an alpaca, I wouldn’t know what to think of to top that,” he laughed. “Whatever I think of, they’ll think up something better. And I like it. I like fulfilling that. I like the surprise of that. I like the physical demands they make of me…I want to prove I can still do it!”

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RAISING HOPE returns on Friday, November 8th at 9 PM on Fox.

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