‘Idol’ sticks with Tuesday nights

So “American Idol” will stay put after all.

Some TV executives have worried recently that Fox might move its smash singing contest to Thursday nights, where it could inflict maximum damage on some of rival networks’ top shows. But Fox announced Wednesday that the fifth season of “Idol” will return starting Jan. 17 in its customary 8 p.m. Tuesday time slot, accompanied for the first few weeks by “audition episodes” at 8 p.m. Wednesdays, then the results show will move to 9 p.m. Wednesdays.

The rest of Fox’s midseason schedule includes the first-year thriller “Prison Break,” which will return with new episodes March 13, while the spy drama “24” comes back with a four-hour “event” Jan. 15-16, with all-original episodes in its regular 9 p.m. Monday slot for the remainder of the season. Its lead-in? A new reality contest, “Skating with Celebrities.”

Starting March 2, the comedies “That ‘70s Show” and “Stacked” will move to Thursdays after “The O.C.” The medical drama “House,” meanwhile, will remain in its 9 p.m. Tuesday slot.

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-- Scott Collins