Some said it wasn’t official until FOX executives confirmed it. Others said it wasn’t until David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson signed their contracts. Still others said it wasn’t until a release date was announced. The very last holdouts won’t believe until shooting begins….
Well, three out of four ain’t bad.
“The X-Files” event series will premiere January 24, 2016 after the NFC Championship Game on FOX, with its second episode airing the very next day in its regular Monday time slot. Why does the football contest matter to X-Philes? Well, for one thing, it’s a huge launching platform — the biggest FOX could provide, given the Super Bowl is set to air on CBS in 2016 and nothing draws better ratings than big NFL games. To both points, “The X-Files'” highest-rated episode came in 1997, when “Leonard Betts” aired after Super Bowl XXXI.
During the announcement, Walden also let a few details emerge about the upcoming six-episode series. After reminding everyone how secretive creator Chris Carter can be, Walden confirmed the new episodes would be “a mixture of standalones and deeper mythology.” How they expect to do both in just six episodes is up to question, but Walden believes — “everyone will be happy with what [Chris] has planned” — so we want to believe, too.
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