Fox wins big with Greg Kinnear, ‘Daily Show’ star Jason Jones

We are starting to get deep into development season, and for one network in particular in Fox, they are definitely making some big moves in order to bounce back from what has been a pretty tepid fall season thanks in part to the failures of “The Mob Doctor,” “Ben & Kate,” and even to an extent “The X Factor” considering that they shelled out over $10 million on Britney Spears.

So what has been the network’s first move? Winning a bidding war for the pilot “Rake,” which is a show starring Greg Kinnear that is based off of an Australian program about a defense lawyer who tries to help his clients, while at the same time he is in some desperate need of help himself. We’re not sold on the actual synopsis being that exciting here, but as a major fan of Kinnear’s work, this could work to bring a new sort of audience to Fox that they haven’t really had before. Fox is making such a commitment to trying out this series that they could face a penalty (per Deadline) if the show is not picked up to series.

In addition to that, we’re also hearing that current “Daily Show” correspondent Jason Jones is teaming up with his former co-star in Steve Carell (serving as a producer here) for a comedy project all about a man who is forced to become a dad-of-sorts after his sister is called away to active duty in the military. It certainly plays well into the American politics that Jones knows very well thanks to his day job, and he has really worked hard on his craft for many years and is deserving of this shot much like Carell was with “The Office” so many years ago.