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Fox ended the 2004-05 season in first place among adults 18-49, its target audience and the demographic group advertisers pursue most fervently. It also finished in a virtual tie for second in total viewers (ABC had about 10,000 more per night), thanks in large part to the continuing “American Idol” juggernaut and the Super Bowl.

The midseason resurrection story was nice and everything, but for every comeback there has to be a setback. Which is a highly charitable way to describe much of Fox’s fall 2004 performance.

Thanks to a lineup that consisted primarily of short-run unscripted shows no one cared about, Fox found itself a distant fourth at the end of December, more than a million viewers and three-tenths of a ratings point in adults 18-49 behind even struggling NBC. Strip out the week that featured the climax of the Red Sox-Yankees series and the deficit is even more pronounced.

The network will try very hard not to repeat its mistakes again this year. Rather than hold off on most of the schedule until after the World Series – a strategy that contributed to last fall’s dismal showing – new network head Peter Ligouri is rolling out much of Fox’s lineup early, starting this week with “Prison Break.”

“We think that makes a lot of sense,” Ligouri says. “When you look at shows like “Prison Break,’ which will have seven hours of originals before we take a two-week hiatus for baseball, we think with a show like that we’re going to get the hook in deep.”

The network will take a similar tack with its other serial dramas, third-year veteran “The O.C.” and the rookie “Reunion,” both of which premiere Thursday, Sept. 8. Ligouri promises “a good solid cliffhanger” for all three shows before they take their baseball break.

Just as significant is the makeup of the fall slate: With the exception of Saturday staples “Cops” and “America’s Most Wanted” and “So You Think You Can Dance,” which will run into late September, everything on Fox will be a scripted comedy or drama. Compare that to last year, when the likes of “The Complex: Malibu,” “The Next Great Champ” and “The Rebel Billionaire” littered the schedule between September and December.

“American Idol,” along with “24,” is set to return again in January, and both shows will likely give FOX a ratings bump. But Ligouri isn’t necessarily banking on that.

“I think the approach that we’re taking is a, “What if “American Idol” didn’t exist?’ approach,” he says. “By doing that, it focuses us on being incredibly aggressive with … every other timeslot on the schedule.”