UPDATE: 'The X-Files' Trailer Debuts During 'Gotham' And 'Minority Report' On Fox

Update: Fox  has released an extended version of the trailer, which can be found below.

Last week, Fox made the bold choice of not placing a new X-Files trailer or teaser on its broadcast of the Emmys. In hindsight, the decision seems to have been wise as this was the least watched Emmys in the history of the ceremony. Ratings aside, the question for all fans of Mulder and Scully is when are they going to see their beloved duo on screen again in something more substantial than a very short teaser placed during the airing of a summer event series? Many assumed the answer to this question would be during the network’s broadcast of the 2015 World Series. However, over the weekend it was revealed that a “two-part trailer" would be released during tonight’s airings of Gotham and Minority Report.

Many may be wondering what’s led Fox to make the seemingly strange decision to air the X-Files trailer during what seems like a rather inconsequential broadcast. Why would the network “dump” the trailer of its most anticipated event of 2016 on a random Monday night without any preparation or build? Well, the truth it is that while tonight’s Gotham and Minority Report are inconsequential in the grand scheme of television, they are far from being so for the programs themselves – especially when it comes to the latter.

When Minority Report premiered last week, it did so with numbers that would have gotten the show immediately pulled from the schedule if it wasn’t based on such a well known property. What were those numbers exactly? In live viewership, Minority Report was holding “strong,” scoring 1.1 adults 18-49 (which grew to a still not survivable 1.7 with Live +3 DVR) and an overall audience size of 3.1 million viewers. To put that in perspective, a Friday night broadcast of the cancelled Enlisted January 24, 2014 scored a 1.0 in adults 18-49 with an overall audience size of 3.23 million, a nearly identical score at a fraction of the cost in both production and marketing.

Similarly, Gotham isn’t doing much better. The Batman prequel only  attracted 4.57 million viewers and received an 18-49 score of 1.6 (this number did grow to a survivable 2.5 after Live +3 DVR was factored in). To make matters worse, Fox has no stake in Gotham. It’s a full-blown Warner Bros. production, so it’s not as if Fox received any of the backend on last year’s Netflix deal that sold the show at $1 million per episode exclusively to the streamer. All that said, the biggest problem for Fox, right now, is the fact that these low ratings are coming so early into the season, meaning the only chance for a turnaround is with a Hail Mary play, and that Hail Mary is The X-Files.

Fox will not be putting the new trailer for Mulder and Scully’s return online tonight through official channels. Instead, the network is hoping to attract viewers to the broadcast of its Monday night primetime block, thus boosting their ratings in live + same day viewership with the help of another genre project of which audiences are dying to get a glimpse. It’s simply too early in the season to call it quits on either show, especially Gotham, which is ordered for a full second season already. And while Minority Report could have been cancelled last week, it’s never the best move to kill a show after a single episode from a P.R. perspective, no matter how it performs.

There’s a version of this story that sees Fox building momentum for The X-Files off the back of its forthcoming premiere at New York Comic-Con and air the full length trailer during The World Series. But, that story required Minority Report, and particularly Gotham, to not sink on the night of their respective season and series premiers. The home of Empire isn’t perfect, and this will be one of its last opportunities to make a difference before drastic changes are potentially forced to be made across the fall schedule.